


The Last Of Us

by AllAnderControl



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, The Last of Us AU, bear with me, very slow burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-24
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-07-26 08:42:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 48,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7567642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllAnderControl/pseuds/AllAnderControl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world that's gone to shit, one girl could have the cure, but if you've taken her half way across the country, could you really just drop her off and leave her behind? Just, don't get too attached, Nicole.</p><p>This is a very violent fic. But if you like badass!Nicole and very slow WayHaught, give it a try.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Willa's Deal.

Nicole was only four when it happened. She's really rather glad she was only young, she didn't have to change or adapt to the current state of the world. Instead she was basically born into it. Her older sister was twelve and found everything overwhelming. 

Her sister, Amy, died when she turned twenty one. She went outside the fences with a boy and they were attacked. Amy came back the following morning with a large part of her arm bitten off. Infected. That's what they shouted at her. Thirteen year old Nicole could see and hear everything that had happened, how they threw her sister up against the wall whilst she cried hysterically and shot her dead. 

Even now, at twenty four, she could still hear her sister's screams. 

She sat in a run down apartment room with her only friend, Xavier Dolls. Ever since the infection had spread, quarantine zones like the one she was currently in set up all over the country. Half of them were abandoned as soon as the money and food ran out, allowing the infected to roam and eat all the people who stayed behind. 

Ration cards were treated as currency. If you had anything worth selling, you'd haggle for as many rations as you possibly could. 

The two were waiting on a crook who owed them both ration cards and guns. 

"He's late." Xavier stated the obvious. 

Nicole sighed and took a large swig from a glass bottle with a questionable liquid inside, "he's not coming." 

"Maybe we should grab him, we know where he is." Xavier shrugged, walking towards the door. 

"Hey," Nicole threw a small amount of papers at her friend, "these are work permits, they'll get us safely to where we need to be." 

"You don't want to go through, under and on top of the buildings this time?" 

"No," taking another large gulp, Nicole made her way to Xavier, "I'd rather get there in one piece before Dermot tries to kill us."

Dermot McGready owned a warehouse just outside the safe zone. Nicole and Xavier smuggled all sorts of things for him, weapons, explosives or tools, in exchange for ration cards or guns. This time he was late on his payment. They were owed a ton. 

Two days prior they smuggled a case full of small steel bars from one side of Boston through the contaminated areas straight to the other. They faced a load of infected, killing at least several each, and armed guards, killing three. The steel bars were used to create shivs. Shivs would be used to stealthily kill infected and break through old rotted locks. 

The two smugglers slowly and inconspicuously made their way to the outside of their rundown apartment block. It was early, so early that the line for the rations was none existent. They made their way down a road and around a corner before hearing screams and watching a small family being dragged from their home. 

"Stay still." An armed guard screamed to the family, forcing the mother to her knees and placing her hands roughly on her head. 

A taller man pulled out some sort of device from his pocket and placed it on the mothers neck, "clean," he said before moving on to the eldest child, "clean," he repeated, the next child cried as he was checked over, "clean," he moved to the last of them, the father, "we got a live one." He pulled away before the father was dragged away, thrown on the ground in front of Nicole and Xavier and shot in the back of the head. 

The children screamed for their father, the mother only held onto her babies, knowing his fate was already set once he wondered out and got bitten. 

"Get moving," the first guard barked at them, "nothing to see here."

The two walked away, "there seems to be more and more executions these days." Nicole sighed. 

"Probably went out to look for more food," Xavier scratched the back of his head, "probably seemed worth the risk."

The rest of the small walk to the main gates that segregated one section of Boston from the other was met with silence. Not many words were exchanged between Nicole and Xavier, but they had an unspoken bond that was formed when Nicole shared parts of her rations with a fatherless and motherless Xavier. 

They reached the gates before the guard asked for their papers and their reason for travelling. 

"Work." Xavier simply replied. 

"Okay," the guard smiled before passing back their papers, "go on thr-" 

Bullets rained from the sky as soon as the gate started to open, "Fireflies!" A few guards began to shout before shooting back in the direction of the gunfire, slamming the gate closed as they did. 

An alarm was sounded and a curfew was instated as Nicole and Xavier ran for cover in a nearby building. 

"Goddamn Fireflies," Xavier grumbled, walking through the building, "are you hurt?"

"Just a scratch," Nicole tore off a small part of her shirt before wrapping it around her arm, "I think a shell casing got me, I'll be fine. What do we do now? Can't exactly go by street."

"We find our own way." The bigger of the two grinned down to the redhead, Nicole barely ever saw any flicker of emotion in her friend's face, but mischief always brought a smile or two. 

They reached an apartment door, 106, and made their way in, there was a rather rough looking man sat on the mould covered couch, reaching for his weapon before withdrawing his hand at the sight of two familiar faces. 

"Mark," Nicole bowed her head slightly, "what's going on out there?" 

The man got to his feet, "Fireflies," he hunched his shoulders slightly, "something to do with that Earp sister, the eldest." 

"Willa." The ginger girl gritted her teeth before moving a stack of shelves that was hiding a secret passage behind it. 

"I think it was a distraction," Mark continued, helping Nicole and Xavier move the shelves, "seemed rather stupid to me, they opened themselves out to be attacked, keep on guard."

They nodded to him in thanks before jumping down and ducking under and hoping under a series of inactive pipes. 

"Willa," Xavier repeated, "what's she gotten herself into this time?" 

"Don't know, but I don't like it." 

In the safe zone, there are random searches made on random citizens. Anything deemed dangerous is confiscated. The guards removed everything they could from the people, they couldn't take another uprising like the Fireflies. 

The Fireflies were a sort of rebel force, they stood up against the treatment of non-infected humans and the poor rations they were handing out whilst keeping the best ones for themselves. Nicole and Xavier were never stupid enough to join them, their rules were just as stupid and extravagant as the rules of the guards, they were just more vocal about how much better they were. 

The two stopped at a nearby work bench to collect their things. Standard stuff, a backpack, a gas mask, a flashlight, a few shivs and a .45 gun. They tossed their bags over their shoulders with the gas mask inside, placed the flashlight onto one of the straps, tucked their shivs and .45's into their belts and made their way through the underground buildings. 

After being inside three different buildings, the two finally found a building infested with spores. Spores were like dust, they floated in the air and slowly infected your lungs before killing and turning you. When an infected has been infected for a very long time, they start to mutate horrifically and if they have not eaten someone they start to deteriorate and sometimes even merge into the wall, door, floor or anything they fall on, dying and releasing spores into the air. 

They placed their gas masks over their heads and slowly creeped around the room currently soaked in spores. A noise stopped both in their tracks, a scream put them on high alert. 

Peaking around the corner, Nicole spotted only an outline of a person being attacked at two angles by two infected. Another walked in front of the two crouching humans, clicking loudly. 

There are many variations of infected, two of the most common are walkers and clickers. Walkers can see, clickers can't. Clickers can sense a person through sound, they were previously walkers that had mutated to the point that their heads had split into two and their eyes covered in sores. Walkers can be strangled by a person, whereas clickers are much stronger and could easily break free from the grasp of a human, to kill a clicker one has to either shoot them or stab them. 

Nicole motioned to Xavier that she was going to deal with this clicker, taking out a shiv from her belt, she crept over as quietly as possible to the loud sounding infected. Standing up to her full height, she grabbed the clicker by its shoulders and in one swift motion stabbed it before helping it to the floor as silently and slowly as possible. 

Xavier moved behind her and pointed at the two walkers who were currently chomping a previously screaming corpse. Nicole nodded. They chose one walker between them and wrapped their strong arms around the walkers necks before they stopped squirming and fell to the floor with a thud. 

They quickly ran out of the building, taking off their masks as they did and jumped through a hole leading to an illegal and smelly black market. Anything from roasted rats to Bulldogs were bought and sold here. Clothes and weapons too. 

"Dermot's close." Xavier whispered, leading both of them. 

A tall and skinny lad stopped Xavier before he tried to move any deeper in the market, "what the fuck do you think you're doing?" He snapped. 

"Calm down, Don, he's with me." Nicole flashed a dimpled smile at the man. 

"Oh, shit, sorry Nicole, go straight through." He moved aside at once, tipping his head to the ginger girl as he went. 

Xavier looked at Nicole quizzically, "how do you...?" He trailed off, pointing behind him. 

"He has a crush on me," she waved her hand, "he used to live near me before the infection broke out and his family had the apartment across the hall from ours. He tried to kiss me eight years ago, I broke his nose." 

They proceeded down two back alleys before a few of Dermot's men confronted them. 

"So," one of them started, "what do you two rats want?" He grinned, showing off his black teeth. 

"Well," Nicole started, hand drifting to her gun, "I was going to ask for the name of a good dentist, but I don't think I'll bother now."

His two companions snorted before returning to scowl at the two intruders. 

"Look," Xavier put his hands up, "we haven't come here to kill you, we just want Dermot."

The three thugs laughed, "do you think you could really kill us?" 

Nicole's grip tightened, "move aside and you won't get hurt."

As if preparing to be shot at, Nicole darted to the nearest cover she could as soon as the men reached behind them. Gun fire flew through the air, hitting the metal containers she used for cover, "Xav, you okay?" She yelled, shooting one of the men in the head. 

"Yeah, fine." He yelled back, shooting the first guy in the leg before Nicole shot him in the face. 

The last man fled the scene, in the opposite way to where Nicole and Xavier were heading. Peaking up, they made their way to the bodies, looting what they could before continuing on their hunt for Dermot. 

"There he is." Xavier pointed out a short middle aged man with balding blonde hair talking to two other blokes. 

"How do we get to him?" Nicole asked. 

"Simple," Xavier grinned again, mischief sprinkling in his eyes, "we sneak around, take out his guards and get straight at him." He jumped down the small ledge they were perched on and hid behind a few crates. 

"Simple?" Nicole's eyebrows were raised with her mouth slightly agape. She hopped down with the taller man and crept slowly to one of the men talking with their target. Xavier followed and before Dermot or the other two knew what was happening, they two bodies fell to the floor. Dead. 

"Hello." Xavier smiled. 

Realisation dawned on Dermot's face and he threw a grenade at the two before sprinting away. Nicole tossed one of the bodies on the grenade and jumped behind a large steel container, the body took most of the impact of the small explosion. They didn't have time to dwell, they took off after the crook, running in and out of buildings, being fired at by the balding man. 

Gathering herself for a second, Nicole aimed and shot a bullet at the back of Dermot's knee, cutting through it like a hot knife through butter. He screamed in agony as he fell, grabbing onto the alley's pipes trying to drag himself away from the two oncoming people. 

"No where to run now." Xavier pulled Dermot away from the walls and punched him as hard as he could in the face, breaking his nose and possibly fracturing an eye socket. 

"Where are they?" Nicole spat as Xavier continued to hit the middle aged man. 

"Stop," he cried out, prompting the younger man to drop him, "I'll tell you," he assured, raising his arms, "the Fireflies took them, Willa, Willa Earp threatened to kill me."

Nicole kicked his abdomen, "and you're more scared of her than us?" She felt insulted, she knew Willa and she wasn't as scary as the redhead, or so she thought. 

"At the time, I was." He held his stomach, blood pouring from his face. 

"Fucking Fireflies." Xavier exclaimed, kicking the wall in frustration. 

"I can show you where she is-" BANG. A bullet soared straight into Dermot's head, but neither the two smugglers pulled the trigger. They reached for their weapons before a figure came into the light. 

"Don't shoot," the voice of Willa Earp floated to them, "it's me." She smiled softly. 

"You have something that belongs to us." Xavier wasn't one to beat around the bush. 

"I got those fairly." Willa held her chest. Her breathing raspy and desperate. 

Nicole rolled her eyes, "those were ours, we want them back."

"No," the Earp leaned against the wall, "I sacrificed a lot for those, I'm not handing them over for nothing," she motioned for the other two to follow her, "I have something I need smuggling to the other half of the city and you two are the best to ask."

Nicole pushed Willa behind a hedge just as a few guards passed their location. Willa continued down a dark and secluded alley just as a voice boomed all around them. 

"Attention. Attention. Curfew is now in full effect. Anyone caught outside now will be killed." 

"Well, we're not making it back in time, we'd better be going somewhere safe." Xavier whispered loud enough for Willa to hear. 

Willa ignored him, "how's Bobo?" She asked Nicole. 

Bobo Del Rey was a family friend of Nicole's. He introduced Nicole to the eldest Earp before he was dragged into the Fireflies and nearly killed over one hundred times because of the girl. 

"I haven't spoken to him in years, ever since you inducted him into your fucked up order." Nicole had no time for Willa. For her, she was just another pretty face in the crowd, Willa drove Bobo away from Boston and to a settlement further west. 

"Oh." Was all she said. 

They snuck behind a hoard of guards before making their way to their destination, killing only who they had to on the way. Nicole's motto was to kill or be killed. Survival wasn't for the faint hearted. 

Pulling one of the Earp's arms around her shoulders, Nicole helped the girl across the hall and into the room they were seeking getting a smack on the head from a wooden board for her troubles. 

"What the fuck," Nicole raised her gun into the face of her attacker and was met with two scared eyes glaring at her, "who are you?" She demanded. 

The girl in question raised the board again, just as another girl snuck up behind Xavier and put a knife to his throat. 

"No, Wynonna, Waverly, it's okay, they're here to help." Willa raised an arm up. 

"Drop it, little girl." Nicole calmly said to the smallest girl, Waverly. 

"Little girl? I'm fucking nineteen." She snarled, but dropped her weapon before running to her eldest sister to see if she was okay. 

The middle child, Wynonna, dropped her arms too, but never took her eyes from the two new comers. 

"I need you to smuggle her." Willa gasped out, each word, each breath and each movement becoming more and more painful. She pointed at Waverly. 

"Fuck off." Xavier laughed. 

"We don't smuggle people." Nicole shrugged, putting her gun back in her belt and turning to leave. 

"Stop!" Willa exclaimed, grabbing onto the redhead's arm, "Please, I wouldn't ask if I wasn't desperate, I'm hardly in a position to take her anywhere, I just need you to take both of them to the town hall, there will be people there to take them to Colorado."

Waverly's face turned from concern for her sister to outrage at her words. "I'm not going with them!" She shouted. 

"Neither am I." Wynonna huffed, folding her arms across her chest and looking the two up and down again. 

"You will, I trust them," the eldest Earp tucked a piece of loose hair behind Waverly's ear, "I used to know her friend, Bobo and her cousin, Doc, I can't help you if I can't help myself, go."

"We aren't taking them anywhere without seeing our payment first." Xavier swaggered over to a dust covered table and sat upon it. 

Willa sighed, "I'll take you now, just you." 

Xavier looked to his companion before nodding a yes to Willa, "meet me in 307." He winked at Nicole, who knew exactly what apartment he was talking about. 

Willa pulled both sisters into hugs before limping to the door, "I won't see you until Colorado. Stay safe and don't forget, look to the light." She whispered. 

They left the other two Earp's and the only Haught behind. Nicole looked blankly at the girls before motioning with her fingers for them to follow her. 

"What's your name?" Wynonna tried to defuse some tension. 

"Nicole." She simply replied. 

"How old are you?"

"Do you really care?" 

Wynonna shrugged, "just trying to lighten the mood."

Rolling her eyes, Nicole walked along another dark alley before stopping at a set of ladders attached to the outside of the apartment building Xavier wanted to meet them at. Jumping up, she tried to catch the ladder and bring it down, but failed short of it. She looked at the two Earp's who scuffed their feet and refused to share her gaze. 

"A little help?" She motioned to the ladder. The younger girl walked over and, with the help of Nicole boosting her up, pulled the ladder down and made her way up, "go straight to the top." Nicole pointed up, waiting for Wynonna to climb the ladder before she did. 

They walked in silence to the room, the only noises made came from the armed guards outside. Reaching up to the top of the door, Nicole grabbed the key and turned it to let the three of them in. She tossed the key onto the coffee table and threw herself on the smelly couch, taking up all of it. 

"So," Wynonna started, "Nicole, huh?" 

"Mm." She replied, hooking an arm over her face. She decided to waste the time with sleep. 

"Must be good, being a Firefly." Waverly looked up at the ginger girl. 

"I'm not a Firefly." She snapped. 

Wynonna pushed Nicole's legs from the couch and settled herself in their place, "then what are you?" 

"I'm a smuggler, I smuggle things, weapons, rations and clothes," she sighed, rearranging herself on the couch, "but not people." 

Rain started to pour from the heavens taking Waverly's attention to the window, "you know," she started once the sky began to blacken, "I've never seen rain before, well, not this close anyway." She whispered it to herself, smiling as the rain attacked the windows. 

"It's just water," Nicole stood up and looked out the window with the younger girl, "wait until it soaks you, then you won't like it."

"Don't be an asshole." Wynonna joined the other two, grabbing Waverly's shoulders and squeezing them. 

An hour or so had passed before Xavier came back, grinning from ear to ear as he opened the door, "it's all there," he gushed, "everything." 

Nicole bit her lip as a smile broke out on her face, "is it worth it?" 

"Yes!" He picked Waverly up and dragged her outside and down another set of stairs. Wynonna ran after them as Nicole also followed. 

Night time in the safe zone consisted of a ton of guards, ready to shoot those infected and not infected, and a load of powerful lights illuminating everything in its sights. Xavier pulled the two Earp's down as soon as two guards passed them. They slowly got back to their feet and followed the guards through a large cylinder cement ring. 

They looked around before jumping out, Nicole going first. One of the guards had anticipated them, they used the end of their gun to smack Nicole in the face, knocking her over and opening a small cut just above her eyebrow.

"Don't think about it." The second guard crept up behind them, pointing their gun at the party's back, moving them all out and onto their knees to be checked over by their detector. 

"Clean," the guard said, taking the machine from Nicole's neck and onto Xavier's, "clean," he walked over to Wynonna, "clean," last was Waverly, the guard barely touched the Earp with his detector when Waverly launched herself at him, stabbing him in the shin with a concealed knife. 

Nicole was the first to react, shooting the unharmed guard before Xavier shot the one on the floor. Xavier walked to the device before his face dropped. 

"Nicole, look." He tossed it to the ginger girl. 

In big letters the worst word in the world was imprinted onto the device. 

INFECTED.


	2. Fireflies.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ducking and diving from humans may be easier said than done, so can you imagine doing the same with infected? And those infected can sprint.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trying to go with the storyline, but with less annoying mercenaries.

"You're..." Nicole trailed off, staring blankly at the screen. 

Wynonna slowly raised herself up onto her feet and placed herself in between her sister and the two others. 

"So," Xavier raised his .45 at Waverly, "you mind explaining why we're smuggling an infected girl?" He snarled at the two. 

"I can explain," Waverly stammered out, her knees coming into contact with her chest as she wraps an arm around her legs, "I'm not infected-"

Nicole aggressively tossed the device at Waverly, "not infected? Then why does that say different?"

Wynonna's eyes snapped up at Nicole as she advanced towards her, "don't you dare hurt my sister."

"Stop!" Waverly got to her feet, pulling the long sleeve of her right arm up, "look at it!" She demanded of the two strangers, the bite was clear, but not bleeding, in fact, it looked as though it had healed over. 

Xavier threw his hands up, "we don't care how you got it."

"No, it's three weeks old!"

Nicole scoffed, "bullshit, everyone who's been bitten turns within twenty four hours." 

"I promise you," Waverly begged, "it's three weeks." 

Wynonna pushed Nicole away from her sister, "why would Willa send you on your way with her infected sister and her other sister? Willa needs you to take us to the Fireflies so they can take us to doctors and see if they can work out a cure." 

One of the dead guard's radio's buzzed expecting the guy to answer. After a few seconds of silence an alam arose, signalling the end of their quarrel. 

"Come on," Nicole grabbed Waverly by the collar on her opened plaid shirt and pulled her into the direction of, what was previously, an under ground sewer system, "keep quiet and keep to the shadows." She hissed at the two Earp's. 

The sewers didn't have the cover it once had. The roof was caved in, allowing guards or anyone to have a full view of what/who is inside. The four stragglers hid in the dark corners, shimmying along the walls as quietly as they possibly could. 

Flashlights shone in every direction, trying to out the four. 

"They're here somewhere!" One of the guards shouted, "keep an eye out, orders are shoot to kill."

Waverly gasped, grabbing a hold of her sisters hand and squeezing it tight. Nicole moved slowly, her eyes fixated on the guards as Xavier lead them away and deeper into the tunnels of the sewers. 

"I SEE ONE!" A guard shouted, pointing at the person at the end of the line, Waverly. Bullets littered the air and the four sprinted into one of the larger pipes to hide from the assault. Nicole wavered, the guard jumped down to get a better shot at them and before he could even adjust himself, he was tackled to the floor by the redhead. 

They wrestled for a mere few seconds before Nicole managed to turn his weapon against him and pull the trigger. She wrenched the large machine type gun from his grasp and proceeded to where the other three were. 

"Nicole," Xavier hissed, "what were you doing?" 

"He was going to follow, I couldn't let him." Nicole whispered back, loud enough so the four could hear but quiet enough to no gain any extra attention from the guards. 

They walked through the tunnels, stopping at the sight of a small circular gate. Xavier opened it just as the other three crept out. 

"Holy shit." Waverly sat down, trying to even out her breathing. 

"Okay, now you'll talk." Nicole knew the guards wouldn't come this far, the infected were at their majority in this area of Boston. 

Waverly sighed just as Wynonna grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet, "three weeks ago, I snuck out. I got bit with someone else and he turned within thirteen hours but I'm still waiting to turn. I went to Willa for help and she's tried to get me to the lab in Colorado."

Nicole snorted, "I'm surprised she didn't shoot you. Willa was never one to take those sorts of risks." 

"She nearly did, but I didn't turn. There's something about me that could save lives and for Willa that was worth getting shot for."

Nicole and Xavier shared a look, "we weren't her first choices, you know. Or her second, or third for that matter, we were just there." Xavier started to walk up a rocky path, climbing on top of caved in roads.

"Didn't she say we were the best to ask?" Nicole felt offended, not like she cared about what Willa thought, but she liked to be appreciated. 

Xavier laughed as he helped Wynonna up one of the steeper caved in roads, "she said that to try and butter us up, if she'd have known that just showing us the merchandise would have worked, she'd have called us a heck of a lot more nasty words." 

Nicole helped Waverly up, still not one hundred percent convinced by her story. 

The two Earp's gasped at the sight before them, buildings had collapsed onto one another, pathways and roads were replaced with gaping big holes. Boston was destroyed. 

"What happened to this place?" Waverly asked as she attempted to keep up with the other three. 

"Around the start of the infection, the army decided that by bombing a large part of the city it would wipe away a majority of the infected." Xavier replied, tiptoeing on the edge of a large hole. 

"Did it work?" Wynonna asked, hand clasped tightly around her sisters. 

"For a time," Xavier jumped down onto another broken off piece of rubble, helping down the two Earp's as Nicole helped herself, "but they came back, infected a load more people and now they roam freely." 

A scream filled the air. Waverly hid behind her sister, who hid behind Nicole. 

"It's okay," Nicole assured, "it's far away." 

"I'd feel a lot better if I had a gun." Wynonna uttered out through gritted teeth. 

Nicole laughed slightly, "do you own a gun?" 

"No."

"Then you're not getting one."

"You have two." She stomped her foot. 

"Yeah, and I need both."

"What if I find one?" 

"Then you can take your sister to the Fireflies." 

Waverly's eyes widened. She loved her sister, but she was just as sheltered as Waverly. She'd much prefer the two experienced gunslingers as her bodyguards than just her sister who has never shot a gun before. 

"Ugh, fine." Wynonna pouted. 

They climbed over all sorts of rubble and broken bits of collapsed buildings before any of them spoke again. 

"Fuck, I can't believe I'm actually outside." Waverly took a huge gulp of fresh air. 

"Don't get used to it, we're going straight through this building." Xavier replied to her. 

The building they had to cross through had tipped and fallen onto the large one next to it. The wall the four climbed through had been completely ripped from the building. Water ran through every hallway, destroying mostly anything it had come into contact with. Twenty years of no maintenance had taken its toll on the block of offices, mould coated every wall and the disgusting smell of damp and death layered every room. 

They could hear Clickers in the distance, too far away to trouble the two smugglers, but close enough to scare the two Earp's. 

They entered a small stair way, Xavier going first and Nicole bringing up the rear. Hearing a small scream from Waverly made Nicole rush to where she was. The sight before her would have reduced a normal person to gagging, a mangled corpse of a guard was all but merged into the floor. Dried blood covered the floor beneath their feet. 

"Don't scream," Nicole scolded the smaller girl, "they can hear you, and if it's a Clicker, they can hear you a heck of a lot better than Walkers." 

"Seems he was checking the building for infected," Xavier picked up the guards log, "wasn't disappointed." 

"Let's keep going," Nicole ushered them forward, "the quicker we get moving, the quicker we can drop you two off."

Waverly hung back to walk with Nicole, she felt safer with the ginger girl, "how old are you?" She asked, curiosity was one of her weak points. She was brass, honest, confrontational and extremely curious. 

"Twenty four." Nicole wasn't one to elaborate or ask questions. 

"I'm nineteen, she's twenty five," she pointed at the back of her elder sister, "you know Willa's twenty seven."

"Hmm." Nicole tried to listen out for Clickers and it was hard enough without hearing Waverly go on with herself. 

A close bang made the four stop in their tracks and Waverly grabbed onto Nicole's hand instinctively. Pulling the younger girl into a nearby room, she crouched behind a desk just as the other two joined them. A Clicker stormed into view, thrashing it's arms and screeching. Nicole looked down at the small girl and was surprised at the lack of a terrified gaze that she expected to be written across her face. 

Xavier waved to the ginger girl and pointed at himself. He was to deal with this threat. He snuck up behind the Clicker, but stood on a creaky floorboard. The noise was loud enough for the Clicker to turn around and grip onto Xavier's shoulders attempting to bite and consume him. The two struggled for a few seconds before Wynonna tackled the Clicker to the ground. The Clicker overpowered her and its teeth closed in on the flesh on her neck before a gun shot stopped its struggling. 

Nicole stood a mere few inches away from the three, gun still pointed at the Clicker and a flame in her eyes. Wynonna pushed the Clicker off her and scrambled to her feet, spitting out curses and pushing off bits of infected off her clothes. 

"Stop," Nicole kept her gun up, this time pointing it at Wynonna, "were you bitten?"

"What?" Wynonna's eyes went wide, "no, of course not, I mean it tried, but no."

"Check her." Nicole nodded to Xavier, who walked up to the older Earp and checked her over. 

"Nothing." He breathed a sigh of relief. 

Nicole put the gun away and looked for a way out. Wynonna followed her with her eyes, glaring at her as she did. She knew it was better to be safe than sorry, but she could have been less of a dick about it. 

"Looks like we're going outside." Nicole lifted herself up and out of a nearby window. 

The Earp's stood planted to the floor, "is she crazy?" The youngest one said to Xavier. 

"Yes, but it's the only way we can go." He supported a neutral expression as he helped the two girls up and through the window with Nicole. 

"I don't like heights." Wynonna closed her eyes. 

Nicole rolled hers and shimmied back to where the dark haired girl stood. She grabbed her hand and tried to help her across, "just don't look down." 

"Great reassurance." The Earp mumbled, following Nicole's hand. 

As soon as they reached another open window, they hopped in. Nicole assisted Wynonna and Waverly, both were shaking slightly due to the height they faced. They walked through a few more corridors and rooms before coming to a blocked hallway. Broken chairs, tables and a bit of fallen in roof blocked their path. 

Xavier lifted a beam up to open up a small hole for them to crouch through. Nicole and Waverly made it safely in before the whole roof collapsed on the hallway. 

"Xav!" Nicole shouted at the rubble, "you dead?" 

"No," he grumbled, "we're fine."

"You'll have to find another way through," Nicole said, Waverly's face was one of concern and terror for the fate of her sister, "Wynonna, let Waverly know you're okay."

"I'm okay, baby girl, keep her safe Nicole!" 

A sudden crash from behind Nicole and Waverly snapped them back into reality. Clickers were heard and they were quickly closing in on the two girls. 

"Shit." Nicole whispered, pulling Waverly away and into a washroom. Dragging her into a stall, Nicole closed and locked the door just as a Clicker burst into the room. 

Waverly was breathing hard. Too hard. The Clicker stopped thrashing around to listen closely. Nicole smacked a hand to Waverly's face, silencing the small gasps that had erupted from her mouth. 

Nicole put her free hand to her own face and placed a finger in front of her lips, shushing the smaller girl before she carefully unlocked the stall door and crept over to the Clicker. Waverly panicked, she reached out to grab the redheaded girl but just fell short of actually touching her. She watched as Nicole expertly killed the Clicker and softly placed the corpse on the floor. 

The older girl motioned for the younger to follow her, but quietly. The Earp obliged, creeping to Nicole as slowly as possible, grasping onto her hand as she approached her. Nicole didn't tear her hand away, she knows what it's like to be terrified. 

Nicole switched her flashlight on and illuminated the rest of the hallways, Waverly pulled back on her hand, forcing Nicole to look at her. 

"What are you doing?" She whispered, pointing at the flashlight. 

"Clickers can't see and Walkers can't see light, they can only see movement, it's okay, it's safe." She smiled down at the smaller girl before continuing looking for her friend and the girl's sister. 

A Walker spotted them shuffling from room to room. Screaming, it sprinted at the two girls, arms wide and teeth set. Nicole didn't like wasting bullets on infected, she preferred to use them on things shooting straight back at her. The Walker barrelled into her, but she pushed back, punching it in the face once, twice, three times before flipping it onto the floor and crushing its head under her boot. 

"Oh fuck." Waverly let out a breath she wasn't aware she was holding and took Nicole's hand in hers once again. 

They walked again in silence, they didn't want another surprise from another Walker. A noise to their right made them stop again, peaking a head round the corner, they were relieved to see the two faces they had lost only mere minutes ago. 

"Wyn." Waverly rushed over to her sister, the terror in her voice replaced with happiness. 

"You okay?" Xavier asked Nicole. 

"Yeah," Nicole sighed, "attacked by a Clicker and a Walker, but they were nothing. You?"

"Nothing, we bypassed all the infected and we found a quick way out," Xavier started to walk back to the exit he had found, "we just need to take out three Walkers and four Clickers." 

Nicole chuckled, "is that all?" 

Stopping just before a hole in the floor, Nicole turned to the two Earp's, "okay, you two stay here." She pointed at the ground. 

"I'm not staying here to be eaten alive." Wynonna rushed out with Waverly nodding in agreement. 

Nicole sighed, she didn't want to argue due to the clear outnumbering Infected that blocked the exit and she didn't want to give Wynonna a weapon, "right, Waverly, you come with me and Wynonna, you're with Xavier, keep close and don't linger." 

The four hopped down the hole, Waverly grasped onto Nicole's hand once again and once again Nicole didn't remove her hand. 

Slowly creeping around the large room, they went separate ways, Xavier and Wynonna choosing the open space and Nicole and Waverly choosing the corridor. A Walker was pacing back and forth in front of Nicole, mumbling incoherently and scratching its face. When it turned its back on the two, Nicole quickly wrapped her arms around its neck and used her strength to strangle it before gently laying its body on the floor. 

She advanced on another Walker. This one was stood still with its face pointed at the wall. It was another easy kill. Waverly pulled back, which was a mistake. A Clicker stumbled passed the Earp girl, clicking away loudly and Waverly began to breathe heavily again. The Clicker snapped its head to the sound of the breathing and launched itself at Waverly, screeching loudly as it did so. Waverly couldn't keep her eyes off the infected and in slow motion saw the thing's arms reach out with its mouth wide open before a knife pierced its neck, ripping its head off. It's slumped to the floor, Nicole stood over it holding a hand out to the smaller girl. 

"That was scary." The girl whispered into Nicole's ear. 

"Shh." Nicole replied, spotting another Clicker in the distance. 

Slowly they walked towards it, it screeched when they got closer, scaring both girls into staying still. Once she figured out that it hadn't heard them, Nicole continued towards it, dragging Waverly slightly as she did. The Clicker didn't move. 

Nicole gave Waverly one of her shivs and pointed at the Clicker. The Earp's eyes widened at the suggestion and she shook her head aggressively, trying to hand the ginger girl the shiv back. 

Nicole moved to the back of the Clicker and grasped its arms. It began to thrash and scream, wrenching its arms from Nicole. 

"Quick!" Nicole shouted. She didn't know how long she could hold onto this Clicker for. Waverly lunged forward and stabbed the infected through the throat, killing it instantly and watched it fall to the floor. 

Nicole grinned up at her, taking the shiv from her hand and placing it back in her belt, "was that the first infected you've killed?" She asked, standing up to her full height. 

"No," Waverly confessed, "but it doesn't get any better." 

The redhead squeezed the brunettes shoulder as the other two approached them. 

The sun began to peak over the dark clouds, signalling the start to a new day. They exited the building briskly and took a moment to process what they had just been through. Nicole and Xavier were used to conditions like that, the Earp's, on the other hand, had no real experience with dealing with the infected. 

"We're only a few hours away from the town hall." Xavier rubbed his hands together, despite the glorious sun, it was chilly. Xavier only wore a pair of jeans, boots and a light long sleeved shirt. 

Nicole looked at the two sisters who admired the sun rise from a small distance away from the two smugglers, "best not waste any time then." 

The ginger girl climbed up onto a truck that had lodged itself between a cafe and an apartment block. She crouched down to assist the two Earp's over as Xavier helped himself. Hopping down, they decided to go through the back of a department store. Xavier pulled on the shutters to open them up, making as much noise as what was humanly possible. 

Wynonna snuck under first and then they heard about a dozen Clickers and Walkers sprint towards them. Nicole forced Waverly through the small gap before she caught sight of all the infected running as fast as they could to their prey. Holding the shutters for Xavier to crawl underneath, Nicole gritted her teeth and launched herself in too.

A Walker had grabbed onto Nicole's leg and began pulling her backwards, towards the rest of the infected. Luckily the shutters slammed down, cutting off the Walker's arm and blocking the infected from coming through. Nicole got to her feet as the infected thrashed on the metal shutters, screaming to get in. 

"You've got something on the shoe." Wynonna pointed at Nicole. 

"Wha-" she looked down at her boot and jumped slightly at the sight of the Walker's arm still grabbing onto her foot, "shit." She shook it off. 

Not risking going through the streets, the four decided to hop from roof to roof instead, cutting off about an hour from their travel time. 

By the time they reached the town hall, the whole street in front of the building was submerged in water. It must have been soaked in water for at least ten years. Looking through the water, it was like a pond. The two cars were also coated in water loving plants, rust and mould etched upon them. 

"Did I mention I can't swim?" Waverly stopped just as the three got in the water. 

"It's not too deep, just stick to where the fence is." Xavier softly replied to her. 

This was it, drop the two girls off and they could be back in their crappy apartment drinking shite that the mental cases on the floor above made them. 

They opened the doors to the buildings, ready to be on their way when they were greeted by six dead bodies. It had been a massacre, blood sprayed everywhere. All over the walls, floors and the pillars that held up the roof. 

"No," Xavier whispered, running over to the bodies and examining them, "shit, no." 

"Xavier, come on," Nicole sighed, planting a hand on his shoulder, "it's over." 

Xavier stood up, anger filled his face, "it isn't over, it could have been, she," he pointed at Waverly, "she holds the key to stopping this. Colorado," he snapped his fingers, "Willa said something about Colorado."

"Yeah," Wynonna started, "the Fireflies have a headquarters in the University there." 

"That's where we go." Xavier smiled at Wynonna. 

Before Nicole had the chance to refuse, a car pulled up outside the building, tires screeching just as about half a dozen men jumped out of it. 

"We need to go, now," Nicole grabbed Waverly's arm and pulled her away with the other two, "if we get split up, meet me in Purgatory." She hastily whispered to Xavier. 

The four ran through hallways and up a few flights of stairs before indeed being split up again. Nicole pulled Waverly into a room that had no back wall and pushed her down into the garden nestled behind the town hall. 

"Wait," Waverly pulled on the arm that Nicole had in her grasp, "what about Wynonna and Xavier?" 

"We need to get out of here, they know where to go, come on." Nicole dragged Waverly down into an old underground train station. 

Spores filled the area around them, Nicole wrapped her gas mask around her head before walking through. She spotted two guards walking through the room. 

"Where are they?" One asked another. 

"I don't know, but let's not linger." The other replied. 

Nicole's breath hitched slightly as one of the guards made their way towards them. As soon as they turned to them, he was stabbed in the throat by an unforgiving Nicole. 

The ginger looked at her small companion who had no mask covering her face, "how are you breathing this in?" She whispered. 

Waverly's face turned serious, "I wasn't lying to you, I can't turn." 

Sighing, Nicole snuck past the first body, searching it before she did and getting several bullets for her troubles, and crept over to the other guard, taking him out easily as well. 

They walked through the railway for what seemed like an hour before finally finding an exit and leaving the spore filled shit hole behind. 

They sat down on a boulder just outside the exit, "so," Nicole began, "you really are immune."

"Yeah." Waverly sadly replied. 

"Right," after a few minutes Nicole jumped to her feet, "we'd best be heading to Purgatory, a girl there owes me a favour and I'm willing to cash in on it." 

"What about Wynonna?" Nicole could hear the desperation in the smaller girl's voice. 

Nicole walked over to her, placed both arms on the brunettes shoulders, "listen, she's with Xavier, she will be okay, we'll meet them in Purgatory, the girl there, Chrissy, knows us both and will help us."

"Okay." Waverly agreed before taking Nicole's hand once again and walking off in the direction of the highway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stuck between letting the four meet up or just letting it be a WayHaught thing from this point.


	3. Purgatory - Chrissy's Town.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Only one survivor resides in Purgatory. Will she help Nicole and Waverly? Have Xavier and Wynonna made it to the small town?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your wonderful comments! Means the world.

Two weeks. It took two long weeks to walk to Purgatory. Waverly has never walked so much in her life. It seemed to be never ending too. Each time they passed what Waverly thought could be Purgatory, it turned out to be a completely different town. Nicole wasn't much of a talker either, it was as though her mind was set on thinking about the fate of her friend, Xavier. Waverly didn't like thinking about what could have happened to Wynonna, the thought that she was out there, virtually alone, scared her too much to think about the possibility of infected or settlers getting a hold of her. 

On the outskirts of Purgatory, Waverly decided to ask the question that's been lingering in the back of her mind since meeting the ginger girl, "what's going on between you and Xavier?" She forced a smile at the suggestion, wanting nothing more than Nicole to disregard any sort of feelings towards her friend. 

"What?" She lifted an eyebrow. "Nothing, we're just friends." 

Waverly wanted to press her more, try and find out new information about her new compatriot, but a ten foot high fence stopped all possible conversations about Nicole's life. 

"We're here," Nicole declared, scouting the area for something to help them climb the fence, "welcome to Purgatory, Waves."

Around a week into their travels, Nicole started calling Waverly by a new name, Waves. Not that the smaller girl was complaining, Waves was easier and quicker to say than Waverly. Not to mention she found Nicole rather cute when saying it too. 

The small town was protected by a ten foot high fence, going by the signs stuck to the fences, it was once electrified. Nicole was stuck in Purgatory from when she was fourteen until she left at sixteen. After the death of Amy, her parents escaped Boston, with Xavier, only to be killed by infected in the small town they had ran off to. 

Nicole headed straight back to Boston with her only friend, Xavier and worked as a smuggler for crooks. Sneaking around and having a trigger happy finger were her only talents. 

"You said you knew someone from here." Waverly said, trying to be of some use to the redhead and looking for something to use to get into the town. 

Nicole triumphantly found a large plank of wood just outside a small cabin, she rested it against the wall and climbed to the top, "yeah, Chrissy, we go way back..." Nicole trailed off before placing the plank down between the cabin roof and the top of the fence, "come on," she extended a hand to Waverly and helped her up, "go straight across and don't look down." She ordered, holding the bottom down as safely as possible. 

Waverly wasn't sure why, but she felt a small pang of jealousy at the mention of Chrissy. She made it across safely and waited patiently for Nicole to join her. 

"What do you mean by way back?" Waverly couldn't help but be curious. 

Nicole sighed, "I used to live here with her family and mine, Xavier included in my family, until it was overrun with infected." 

"How do you know she's still here?" 

"I don't, I'm taking a chance." She shrugged. 

Nicole remembers the city well, the fences were not only on the outside, but the inside too. Nearly every street was sectioned off from their connecting streets, alley's and houses. They had to climb over and under a few before they got on to the main road. 

Nicole stopped Waverly with her hand and brought a finger to her lips in a silencing motion. A Clicker was seen through the fence that was attached to a gate. That gate was on the floor near the two girls feet. If either made a noise, the Clicker would hear and they'd be done for. 

The taller girl took a step back and stepped on what could only have been a car door. Her foot smashed through the delicate glass and alarmed the Clicker. It charged towards the noise and before it had made it all the way through the gate entrance, it was blown to a million pieces. 

"Oh. Shit." Waverly stood with her mouth wide open, petrified into standing still. 

The redhead girl pulled her leg free from the glass, luckily none of the glass penetrated her skin, "yeah, Chrissy is still here, that's one of her traps." 

"Is she mentally deranged?" 

"A bit, but she's a good laugh." The redhead grinned down to her still open mouthed companion. 

The two climbed over a multitude of barriers, trucks, fences and walls in a successful attempt to go deeper and deeper into Purgatory. Nicole often found herself way a head of the small brunette girl, she had to double back on herself to help the Earp out. 

Nicole opened the door to a run down garage, hearing a small ticking sound before a rope tightened itself around her right leg and swung her upside down in the air. Her .45 fell from her belt and landed with a thud on the floor. 

"Nicole!" Waverly shouted up at her, running to grab the gun as she did. 

"I'm okay," she let her arms flop down, "you see that rectangular thing?" She pointed at a refrigerator, "that will be the counter weight, cut the rope." 

Waverly nodded and ran the small distance to the object, she whipped out her knife and began to saw at the rope. A noise stopped her. She looked over the fridge and spotted a whole load of infected trying to break through the fence that separated them. 

"Nicole." Waverly panicked. 

"It's okay, you have a gun," Nicole tried to reassure the young girl, "I have the machine gun, keep trying to cut the rope and I'll try and keep them off you." 

Waverly nodded and continued. Nicole was too high up for the infected to get her, but Waverly was basically on the floor. 

The infected started to pile through the fences, Nicole tried her best to put as many down as possible. Waverly was really rather impressive with a gun, she put down at least three before she continued to cut through the rope. 

The rope lowered significantly and the infected were upon her. A Clicker began thrashing at her, teeth mere inches from her abdomen. She pushed herself away from it, swinging backwards and pulling her gun to strike it straight in the face, knocking it over and shooting it straight in the mouth, killing it instantly. 

Waverly was surrounded and Nicole was terrified that they had gotten to her. She raised her gun to the roof and shot the metal hook holding the rope in place. Her back smacked the floor and knocked the wind from her lungs, groaning she got to her feet and let her gun send a swarm of bullets through the air, piercing the bodies of the infected. 

"God damn idiots!" A new feminine voice yelled towards them. Before she knew it, Nicole was dragged through a door along with a blood soaked Waverly. "RUN!" The owner of the voice screamed as more infected attempted to climb the fences. 

They ran through houses and climbed up trucks, Waverly kept her hand clasped tightly with Nicole's, then straight into a bar via the secure back door. 

"Chrissy, I-" Nicole started, but Chrissy had taken a vice grip to Waverly's wrist, pulled out a pair of handcuffs and attached her to a metal pipe on the wall. 

"On your knees." She barked at Nicole, gun raised at the back of the ginger girls head. 

Nicole did as she was told, "hands behind your head," Chrissy continued, and when Nicole obliged she began to search the tall girl's pockets, "I oughta shoot you right now." She pressed the end of her weapon to the back of Nicole's head, it was still warm from the gunshots it previously departed with. 

Waverly struggled against the pipe, pulling at it desperately. She grunted as she finally tugged the metallic structure off the wall and smashed it against Chrissy's head. Nicole jumped up and grabbed Waverly's hand, preventing her from hitting Chrissy again. 

"Waves, stop." She scolded her. 

"You better put leach on that thing." Chrissy rubbed her head, glaring at the smaller girl. 

Waverly scowled, "you wanna go? I'll beat your ass right here."

"Waverly, calm down." Nicole wrenched the pipe from the Earp's grip. 

"No, fuck you, she handcuffed me and nearly killed you." Nicole wouldn't admit it, but Waverly was scaring her slightly. 

Nicole pushed Waverly slightly against the wall, "I know, but I also know how to handle her, keep quiet," she turned her gaze to her old friend once she got a nod of agreement from Waverly, "Chrissy, I'm here-"

"Let me guess," the girl with jet black hair scoffed, "you want a favour?"

"I need to get to Colorado." The ginger girl simply replied, hoping Chrissy would know what she needed. 

The girl did indeed know, "and you need a car? I'm sorry, Haught, but I don't think I owe you anything worth that much." She cackled. 

"Chrissy," Nicole walked towards her and clasped her hands, "you do." 

Looking from one eye to another, Chrissy sighed, "fine," she released her hands, "fine," she repeated, "come with me."

She took them from the bar and onto the streets, mumbling to herself as she did, "this is a stupid idea, Chrissy, you're going to regret this."

"She's fucking crazy." Waverly whispered to the tall girl, earning a raised eyebrow and once again being scolded by Nicole's expression. 

"You should have left them," Chrissy continued, "her and her stupid companion."

"Chrissy," Nicole warned, being on the road with Waverly for two weeks, she learned how much of a short fuse the girl had, "is it just you?" She tried to defuse some tension that had built. 

"Yeah, dad died two years ago and mum died a year after you left." If the two girls could see Chrissy's expression, it may have broken their hearts. 

Chrissy lead them through the cellar of a church, locking the doors behind her as she did. Waverly ran over to the books Chrissy kept, rummaging around and making a mess. 

"Keep your hands to yourself." Chrissy shouted at the brunette, who gave her a middle finger in response. 

"Chrissy, I know there's a car here." Nicole followed the girl to a nearby bench. 

"What are you doing?" She ignored the redhead, "what does Dolls think of this?" Chrissy never called Xavier by his first name, "why are you baby sitting?"

"I can hear you, you know." Waverly yelled over to them. 

"Xavier... I don't know where he is," Nicole sighed, "I took a job, to get her to Colorado and the rewards are amazing. I know you have a car somewhere here and I want it, you owe me that." 

Chrissy stared at Nicole for a short while before replying, "listen, I'm sorry about Dolls, but you know going out there is suicide?" 

The redhead gulped, "yeah, I know, that's why I need your help, no one knows this town better than you." 

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Chrissy offered Nicole a soft smile, "okay, well- GET OFF THAT!" She screamed at Waverly. Nicole flinched at the sound of her voice. 

The small brunette had picked up a picture frame from a nearby shelf. Chrissy stomped over to her and tore it from her grip, "Don't. Touch. A. Thing." She barked out through gritted teeth before walking back to her old friend, the frame cuddled to her chest. 

"Chrissy, the sooner we do this, the sooner we'll be out from under your feet." 

"Take this," the black haired girl tossed a shotgun to the ginger one, "I also have a few things I want to teach you before you leave."

Nicole followed Chrissy to the end of the room and straight to a work bench, the shorter of the two girls took out five objects, a metal can, razors and anything sharp and pointy, gunpowder, string and matches. She began to put it all together before setting the string on fire and throwing it into a concealed area. It exploded, sending bits of sharp metal everywhere, piercing the walls and the barrier Chrissy had put up to keep them safe. 

"If you come across any of those objects, you can use them as a type of bomb, kills anything from infected to humans," she spared a glance to the whistling Waverly, "and annoying little kids."

"She's nineteen." Nicole picked up a few objects, scanned them and placed them in her bag. 

"Oh my god," she placed a hand across her mouth, "you're getting attached."

"What?" She raised one eyebrow, "no, as soon as we get that car, we are gone and she is too." 

"Of course," Chrissy winked, walking towards where Waverly was she scowled, "you better not have touched anything else." 

"Nope," she batted her eyelashes, unconvincing to Nicole, but satisfying to Chrissy. Upon the questioning gaze she got from the redhead, she winked, "I didn't touch anything."

They walked in silence up the stairs and into the main part of the church. Nicole spotted two beds near the altar. 

"Who else is here?" She asked, sceptically. 

"No one, I used to have someone, Pete, but he vanished." Chrissy looked at her feet, sadness etched on her face. 

She opened one of the windows that looked out onto the local high school, "when Purgatory was first on lock down, the army came, they set up the school as a sort of safe zone but it was overran within two years, there was a rumour that a working engine nestled itself in the bonnet of their truck. No one has been close enough to grab it, though."

Nicole pulled herself through the window and onto the soft grass below followed by Chrissy and Waverly. The smallest girl was waving around Nicole's gun, causing the tallest girl to take it from her. 

"Hey." She glared at the ginger girl. 

"You're not keeping it," Nicole hastily put her gun in her belt, "I haven't seen you handle one under the pressure of being stealth, so you're not having it."

"How am I supposed to show you how good I am if you don't let me." Waverly stomped her feet. 

Nicole shrugged, "you got me there." But still didn't hand over any sort of weapon. 

Chrissy unlocked the back gate that lead to a small graveyard. The place was unkept and wild. Clickers roamed back and forth between the headstones, occasionally stopping to listen out for any movement before continuing. 

Waverly suddenly felt a surge of confidence when approaching the infected, but still allowed Nicole to deal with them. 

The ginger crept up behind the closest Clicker, wrapped her arms around its neck and stabbed it with one of her shivs. Carefully placing the body down, to not alert the others, she motioned for the other two to follow her. She dealt with the other four infected before a Walker spotted them. 

It screamed as it launched itself in their direction. Nicole kicked it in the shin, breaking the things leg like a twig. She grimaced as she felt the things nails drag down her leg, breaking a few layers of skin, but not drawing any sort of blood from the redhead. She punched its face and watched it fall to the floor before taking both her feet and using them to jump on its head. 

"Nicole." Waverly whispered, pointing at two other Walkers that had spotted them and proceeded to sprint towards the three girls. 

Nicole set herself, Chrissy did too. Chrissy used a metal pipe with scissors strapped to the end and smashed it off her Walker's head, killing it instantly. Nicole, on the other hand, didn't get a chance to deal with hers as Waverly jumped on its back, knocking it over and stabbed it repeatedly until it had stopped moving. 

"Not bad." Chrissy remarked to the smaller girl. 

Nicole looked impressed, "not bad? That was impressive, Earp," she clapped the youngest girl on the back and grinned down at her, "you'll be a fully certified killer in no time." 

Waverly rolled her eyes. The taller girls shared a look before leaving the cemetery. They cut through houses instead of going down streets. The whole town of Purgatory was infected, bar Chrissy, so one can imagine how many infected roamed the streets. 

One particular house they intruded upon was in direct line with Purgatory High. With Nicole's help, Chrissy lifted up the steel shutters of the houses garage and placed it down as silently as possible. The three hid behind a car. This particular car, like many, many others, had its wheels rotted to the ground. It wasn't a simple case of getting a working car, it was a case of finding one in actual working condition. 

"Holy shit." Waverly gasped and Nicole had to agree. Holy shit was an entirely appropriate reaction to the scene in front of them. 

The grounds were coated in infected. Clickers and Walkers everywhere. Three girls on two dozen infected? Nicole doesn't like those odds. She took off her bag and searched it. The blade bomb. She could take out at least six with just one, but Chrissy had one too. They could take out at least ten and shoot the rest, but that would mean giving Waverly a gun. 

"Waves," Nicole turned to her, "take this," she handed over the shotgun Chrissy had given her, "you know how to work it?" Waverly shook her head, "okay, you put the bullets in here, cock the gun, aim, shoot, open it up and repeat, got it?" The smaller girl nodded her head, smiling slightly at the gun in her hands. 

"What are you doing?" Chrissy aggressively whispered to her. 

"The blade bomb thing, get it ready, throw it in the middle and shoot the stragglers." Nicole prepared her bomb and got her gun into position. 

Chrissy nodded and copied Nicole. 

"Be ready, Waves, this is important." 

Waverly nodded. 

The next minute or so happened so slowly for Waverly. One minute she's gushing over the responsibility handed to her, the next she's up shooting rounds at the infected. She gunned down at least four. She was glad to be of help instead of just a burden for Nicole. The joy she felt holding that shotgun was immediately gone as soon as the redhead wrenched it from her grasp. 

"Nicole." Waverly set her jaw, annoyance filling her veins. 

"Nope," Nicole shook her head, "you can have it back when I need you to have it back," she placed it behind her back, "good job, though." 

Despite feeling angry at once again not being trusted with a gun, Waverly couldn't help the smile that enveloped her face at the compliment Nicole had given her. 

The truck they were after was wedged through a wall. The front of the car, the part Nicole needed, was smashed into the school. The only way to get to the front of the car was by going inside the building. 

Chrissy located a window near the car and hastily opened it. Screeching was heard not so far away from where the three were, stomping could be heard too. Infected were coming. Nicole pushed Chrissy inside before helping Waverly in. A Clicker sprinted round the corner and threw itself at Nicole, but the ginger girl was too quick for it and punched it with a shiv through its neck. A few more rounded the corner, but Nicole had already thrown herself threw the window. 

"Close it!" She gasped to Waverly who obliged. 

"It isn't here," Chrissy whispered, "fuck, fuck, fuck!" She smacked the bonnet with each curse she shouted. 

Nicole could see the doors of the entrance creak and bend with every infected that smashed against it, "Chrissy, we need to go." She grabbed Waverly's hand with a vice like grip and lead her through the eerie hallways of Purgatory High. Infected chased them through the halls, but the girls were too fast for them and took refuge in the gym. They placed as many gymnasium equipment as they could in front of the doors before they climbed the bleachers to leave the high school through a smashed window. 

Infected still roamed freely, but the three walked in silence, careful to not make any noise. The sun began to fall and night started to take over. The three broke into a house on the outskirts of the town, the only part of Purgatory that wasn't covered by a fence. 

"Nicole..." Waverly gasped. 

Nicole looked at what Waverly was looking at and frowned. The sight of a body hanging from the ceiling made the Earp girl gag. 

"Pete..." Chrissy raised her hands to her face, realisation and horror written on her face. 

Looking from girl to girl, Nicole took out a shiv and cut the rope that held Pete to the roof. She softly dropped him to the floor, unwrapping the rope from his neck and checked him over. 

"He's been infected," Nicole sighed, picking Pete's limp body up and placing him on the couch, "looks like he'd rather take his own life than turn." 

Chrissy nodded and sat next to him. Waverly roamed the house. She found a scribbled note on one of the tables. 

Chrissy,

If you're reading this, I've died. I'm sorry it had to be this way. I tried to get us out, I even took the engine from the car at the school. I wanted to surprise you. To take you to DC or New York or anywhere but here. The car is ready, waiting and full. It just needs you to drive it. Please survive. Survive for us. 

All my love,  
Pete. 

She passed the note to Nicole who read it with a sad expression on her face. Waverly walked away as the redhead shows Chrissy Pete's letter. 

She found the car with ease. Wasn't that hard, the house was only tiny. But everything was there, keys, petrol and working tires. They were going to leave and the next stop was Colorado. 

"I'll help you get down the road, after that you're on your own." Chrissy's voice broke as she and Nicole walked into view. 

"Thank you, Chrissy, we appreciate everything you've done," Nicole kissed Chrissy's cheeks, "you know you've always got a home with Doc and Bobo, right?" 

Chrissy nodded, "yeah, but I'm not sure if I want to go there." 

"If you see Xavier, please send him straight to the lab in Colorado, him and Wynonna know what that means." She added the last part when Chrissy looked at her with a confused look. 

"Will do," Chrissy opened the garage shutters just as Nicole jumped in the car, pushing Waverly from the driver's seat to the passenger seat, "now, get the fuck out of my town."

The car started straight away and the two were off, knocking over a few infected as they went. They waved at Chrissy as she became a small dot in the distance. 

"She was a dick," Waverly started, tucking up to herself in the passenger seat, "but she was a good dick." 

_

They were on the road for two days, stopping only for a small toilet break and to let Nicole have a little four hour sleep. 

"Hey," Waverly sat in the back seat in one late summers morning, "Chrissy was into some weird things."

"What do you mean?" Nicole didn't take her eyes off the road. 

"Woah, look at the size of him!" The smaller girl's eyes bulged open, she moved herself so that she could show Nicole what she was looking at, "have you ever seen one that big?"

"Waves, I'm trying to drive and no, I don't go for that sort of thing." Nicole blushed slightly. 

"Why are the pages stuck together?"

"Erm..." Nicole felt herself go darker. 

Waverly chuckled, "I'm just fucking with you," she held the magazine out the window, "see you later, naked dude!" And dropped it. 

The younger girl rooted around the car for a few minutes before finding something and hopping into the front seat again, "who's Taylor Swift?" She asked, popping out a circular disk and twirling it in her hands. 

"I haven't a clue, why?" Nicole shrugged. 

"It's a disk, it plays music, we had one at the military bunks back in Boston." Waverly grinned, she placed the disk into a player at the front of the car and kept her broad grin in place when the music started to flow through the speakers. 

Waverly's favourite song from the disk was Out Of The Woods, she replayed it about ten times, much to the annoyance of the redhead. 

The car was stopped by a massive congestion of around one hundred cars. Nicole cursed. The only way around was to go through the town one of the junctions lead off to. She decided to follow the road down. Having no clue where she was, she drove slowly, dodging cars as she went. 

A man was stood in the middle of the road, he turned when he saw the car and began to wave his arms, "help! Help me! I need you're help! Please! I have kids!" He screamed at them. 

Nicole wasn't convinced. She found that honesty was the hardest thing to find these days.

"Are we not helping him?" Waverly asked, confused as to why Nicole would continue driving. 

"Nope." Nicole sped past him. She was right, however. It was a trap. She found that out as soon as a bus smashed into the end of their car making it twist and turn in the air and fly straight into a nearby shop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am completely open to suggestions, I do take all praise or comments on board!


	4. Ambushed.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trust is a hard word for Nicole to swallow. So what happens when two strangers need Nicole's trust? A thirteen year old boy and his brother have found that out.

The car door was ripped from its hinges in an attempt at taking the two girls as prisoners. Nicole felt strong arms reach out for her and pull her out of the seat. Her head was throbbing and blood poured from a wound on her head, just above her eyebrow. 

"We got two girls." The man holding Nicole smirked to his companions. 

Nicole wasn't one to go down without a fight. Once her head starting working right, she sent a right hook straight into her attackers face, knocking a few green and brown teeth out. The man grimaced and let go, holding his face with his left hand, he swung his right and gripped a large chunk of Nicole's hair and forced her towards what once was a glass covering for a refrigerator. The smashed glass of the door stuck up dangerously close to Nicole's neck. 

The man pushed her head down, her skin grazed the glass, blood trickling down. A scream erupted from behind the two and the weight holding Nicole in place dropped dramatically. The redhead swung around and was surprised to find Waverly hovering over the man's lifeless body, shaking violently and slapping a blood soaked hand to her mouth. 

"Nicole..." She whispered, her eyes snapped up to the taller girls with tears on the edge of them. 

"It was him or us, you chose us." Nicole shrugged, walked over to the upturned car and pulled her and Waverly's backpacks out from the back seats. 

Waverly had never killed a person before. Infected, yeah, not many, but yeah. But real life people? That was her first. She felt nauseous, as though she was hit by a ten ton truck. 

They didn't have time to dwell, a few more men made their way towards them, shooting as they did. Nicole pushed Waverly behind the shops counter and ducked behind the car. 

"Stay there!" She hissed at the brunette who was still in shock. 

Nicole was incredible at sneaking around and not being seen or heard. There were only three men, perhaps they thought the two girls weren't much of a challenge for any more than four. The redhead creeped around the store and hid behind a shelf, one of the men sniggered as he called out for them. His feet were visible from where Nicole was, only mere centimetres away. 

She slowly revealed herself from round the corner, placed a hand over his mouth before easily disposing him and placing his body down quietly. 

Nicole couldn't see nor hear anything from her small companion, it was a good sign. She quietly took her .45 from her belt and aimed it at one of the guy's head before pulling the trigger and revealing her location. 

The last man standing ducked behind some cover, unfortunately for the redhead girl, he shared the cover with Waverly. A scream came from behind the counter as Nicole walked around slowly, gun at the ready. The man dragged the struggling Earp out from where they were hidden and pointed his gun at Waverly's head. 

"Drop it, bitch!" He snarled at Nicole. 

Taking a few breaths to steady herself, Nicole replied, "okay, calm down, let her go and I'll let you go." 

"No," he smiled sickly, brown teeth were seen, "you will put your gun down or I'll put her down." 

"Listen, you don't know who you're dealing with," Nicole took a few steps closer to the two, "it'll be best for you if you let her go." 

The man started to cackle and Waverly had had enough. Taking the hand that was gripped around her neck, she lifted it to her mouth and bit. Hard. Screaming he whacked her on the head with the handle of the gun, but before he could get any sort of aim at either girl, Nicole took the chance to put him down. His lifeless body slumped to the ground on top of the brunette girl who thrashed against it. 

Pulling the body off Waverly, Nicole started, "You okay?"

"Yeah, head hurts, but I'm okay, you?" She rubbed the newly formed bump hidden away by her hair. 

"I'm always okay." Nicole wiped the blood away from her head and neck. 

Waverly stayed silent. The after effects of killing a human being sunk in. Sure she stabbed that guard back in Boston, but she technically didn't take away the lights that shone in his eyes. Nicole and Xavier took care of the two that outed Waverly's infection. 

Nicole searched for a way out. Barriers as high as possible blocked most of the exits and the bus that caused their car to now be upturned in a local corner shop was blocking the way they came in. They could go through a building, but which one. 

The older girl scouted the area, noting a pair of shutters connected to a large block of flats, the shutter was controlled manually, which suited the girls perfectly. She beckoned Waverly to join her as she opened it up. 

"Do you think you can hold it?" She asked once the smaller girl had gone inside. 

"Let go and I'll try," she placed her hands on the bottom of the steel shutters and held it in place, "hurry up, it's fucking heavy!" She yelled through gritted teeth. 

Nicole rolled inside before Waverly dropped the shutters with a loud thud. Turning on her flashlight, Nicole looked around the room. 

"Take anything you think is important." She said to her companion, the room was littered in clothes and shoes and two very dead bodies lay like slabs of meat on two work benches. 

"Woah," Waverly inspected the bodies, "no bite marks, do you think what happened to them would have happened to us?" 

Nicole picked up a ledger with scruffy handwriting hastily scribbled on it, "yeah, or worse." She shrugged. The ledger had described everything that the trap had caught. Over one hundred people, each with a set of clothing, most with food and only some with helpful objects. 

"How did you know that was going to happen?" The smaller girl walked to where the taller stood, her eyes wide with curiosity. 

The redhead sighed, "I've been on both ends of a stunt like this." She placed the ledger back on the table. 

Back when Amy had been killed, Nicole's parents fled to Purgatory, but before they got there they had passed through some big cities. One of them had set up a trap like this. Nicole's father stole a car from the military and drove it to the small town. But traps like this existed and the still bleeding wound that stayed open for Amy compelled the Haughts to stop for a straggler begging for help with his family, "I've got kids!" He screamed. Luckily the Haughts and Xavier got out, a few bullet wounds as medals, but otherwise intact. 

After leaving Purgatory, Xavier and Nicole were desperate for many things, clothes, food and water. They had their pick of weapons and enough bullets to wipe out a small village. Nicole was the bait, you couldn't refuse a crying woman. They never killed, just took what they needed and left, but they may as well have shot their victims dead. 

The memories washed over Nicole and she shuddered. She was never proud of what she did, but in a world where you have to make sacrifices to survive, she didn't have much of a choice. 

Waverly stayed silent. She didn't want to pry. Well, that was a lie. She really wanted to pry, but thought better of it. Nicole wasn't much of a talker and if Waverly were to have asked, Nicole may just knock her out and carry her to Colorado. 

"You got everything?" The redhead asked. 

Waverly nodded and Nicole proceeded through the building. It was damp and smelled like death. The rooms they're walking through must have been a storage facility for the occupants upstairs. Metallic shelves were upturned and the two had to climb over them to reach the front of the building. 

A nearby scream made Nicole drag Waverly to the floor. They hid behind the bottom of a windowsill and peaked out just above it. They saw a man and a woman running as fast as they could to try and get away from something the two girls could quite see. Bullets rained through the air. The man was caught, holes coated his torso. Dead. But the woman was shot in the leg. She tried to crawl away as a armour clad truck swerved the corner. 

Two men got out, the first checked over the dead man, looking for anything they could take, the second shot a round into the cranium of the struggling woman. 

"Nothing, old pair of shoes and no food." One sighed to the other. 

"Let's get back, Darius and the others should have caught that car by now." They hopped back into the truck and drove at breakneck speed away. 

The two girls let out a held breath, both completely terrified that the two guards were going to spot them. The two blokes were bound to discover that the people in the car had escaped and they were bound to find the bodies the girls left behind. Nicole and Waverly didn't want to hang around when they did. 

Walking slowly out from behind the window, Nicole peaked outside, checking whether the coast was completely clear or not before waving the smaller girl over. 

They walked through the streets in silence, both too scared to utter a single word just incase anyone over heard them. Just like most of Boston, the main area's of this town were flooded. The only way through certain parts were to explore the insides of buildings. They opted to go through a high class hotel, the front of it was protected by at least eight feet of water. 

"Do you remember me saying I can't swim?" Waverly asked, "because I can't."

Nicole nodded, all they had to do was swim over to the top of the hotel's sign, climb up on it and pass through the broken window into the complex. She looked around for anything to help the smaller girl get across. After finding virtually nothing she gripped Waverly's hand and guided them to the water. 

"Grab onto my back and wrap your legs around my waist from the back." Nicole instructed, she felt around with her feet and felt the dip in the water. The ground must have collapsed in on itself, that eight feet of water turned out to be nearly eighteen. 

"Um, oh, okay." Waverly felt her cheeks sting with heat. Wrapping herself onto Nicole's back, she closed her eyes as the redhead swam over to the hotel. Nicole felt Waverly's breasts pressed against her back. Her heart did a small leap when the legs of the younger girl snuck round her waist. Ignoring it, she swam on. 

"Grab the E and pull yourself up." Nicole said, helping the girl up. Holding her breath, she ducked her head under the water in an attempt to push the girls legs up. 

After the girl successfully lifted herself up, it was Nicole's turn to drag herself into the hotel. Luckily for the two girls it was still summer and their clothes were all but guaranteed to dry within the next few hours. The two carefully dodged the sharp glass as they jumped down into the lobby. The place must have been magnificent before the break out of the infection. A smashed chandelier was crushed into the floor, a bar was located on the right hand side of the lobby with the reception on the left and in the middle stood a grand staircase - now fallen in due to a mould infestation. 

Waverly whistled appreciatively as she looked around, "woah, have you ever stayed in a place like this?" She asked, neck craning to take in the sights and imagine what it looked like bright and shiny and new. 

Nicole shrugged, "haven't a clue, I was four when the world went to shit and I don't remember anything from before." 

"Must be awful, to not remember how things used to be." Waverly walked over to the caved in staircase. 

"No," Nicole looked around for anything they could use or take for future reference, "if you don't remember you can't mourn."

"A bit like me with my parents." Waverly whispered to herself thinking Nicole couldn't hear her. The redhead shot her a soft look, not pity, Nicole wouldn't pity someone she found even the slightest bit delightful, but a look of sympathy. 

"I can't find anything to help us get up, so I'll boost you and you can pull me up." Nicole clapped the younger girls shoulder, shaking her from her thoughts and back to the task at hand. 

Waverly nodded and climbed up the wall using Nicole as leverage. She struggled slightly to pull herself up, perhaps the lack of food was taking its toll on the girl, "hey!" She shouted from the balcony, "there's a ladder here, I'll toss it down."

Nicole prayed no one heard the younger girl, being loud was one thing, with guards they let you off with a warning, with these stragglers they'll kill you as soon as they look at you. Waverly quietly dangled the ladder over the edge and Nicole placed it on the floor before climbing up and joining the brunette. 

They shuffled round staircases and in and out of hotel rooms, careful to not make any sort of noise. They ducked and dived to avoid detection and almost avoided killing anyone at all. Almost. One guy spotted them and grinned, his toothless mouth made Waverly want to hurl. But before he could shout to any of his companions, a knife wedged itself straight in between his eyes, killing him instantly. 

Nicole looked around for the owner of the knife and was surprised to see Waverly walking over and pulling it out from the guy's head. The smaller girl smirked at the taller girl's facial expression. Shock covered her face and her mouth was left wide open. 

"Not bad for a girl who 'can't handle a gun.'" She used quotation marks to emphasise her point. 

"Okay, smartass, let's go." Nicole pulled on Waverly's arm and guided her towards the elevator shaft. She wrenched it open with difficulty, and guided Waverly inside. 

Like most hotel elevators, there were two, one on the left side of the other. They had to shimmy across the walls to make it to the other side, their target was the floor above. The elevator on the other side was currently on the same floor as Nicole and Waverly, all they had to do was climb on top of it and jump slightly through the open doors of the floor above. Easier said than done. 

Nicole helped Waverly up again and then followed her. The elevator began to creak and vibrate violently. Nicole pushed the smaller girl toward the doors and all but threw her through it before the Elevator collapsed with Nicole still on it. 

Her body plummeted to the ground, as though it was in slow motion, she turned in the air. The elevator smashed into what sounded like an ocean and sunk to the floor. Nicole braced herself for the impact, instead of the solid kiss of the ground, the smack of water greeted her. She was sucked under slightly before she swam to the top of the water. 

"Nicole!" She heard Waverly shout from just a few floors up. 

"I'm okay." Nicole yelled back. 

"I'll jump down!" Waverly backed off slightly, ready to join Nicole in the water. 

"No!" Nicole held one hand up, "you can't swim, just find a place to hide and I'll come get you, don't make a single noise and kill anyone or anything that approaches you." 

Waverly nodded, "please don't die, I actually sort of like you."

Nicole laughed, Waverly's heart jumped to the sweet sound, "I won't give you the satisfaction of me dying first, go, hide!" 

Nicole started swimming off through the half open doors in front of her. Luckily her flashlight wasn't water damaged and seemed to work perfectly when under the water as well as on top of it. She swam through bodies of the infected, terrified they would suddenly wake up, but none of them even twitched. 

She finally found some high land, but it was still flooded, this time it was only knee deep. She took her shotgun out and hoped and prayed that it still worked after all the water. As if preparing herself for a bunch of infected ganging up on her, she crept slowly around the underground rooms. The signs around the corridors pointed out that the rooms belonged to the maintenance block. 

The rooms were pitch black and Nicole could only hear the sound of her own heartbeat. She had been in a situation like this before, but she had Xavier for company. She uttered a heavy sigh for her friend, hoping and praying that he was okay. And Wynonna. Can't forget Waverly's sister. 

After slowly making her way around, she finally spotted some stairs. Still holding the gun out in front of her, she slowly ascended the stairs, pointing it in every direction. Despite not seeing any sign of infected, Nicole didn't let her guard down. She made her way down a hallway and stopped at a door that had a sign saying 'EXIT' above it. Luckily she found the way out, unluckily it had to be activated by a keycard. 

"Fuck sake." She whispered to herself, she looked into every room she could to try and find the card. Eventually she found one inside a sink in the employee bathroom. Breathing a sigh of relief, she all but ran towards the door and slid the card into the slot. 

"Great," she nearly shouted, but her gritted teeth muffled the sound, "no power." 

Wires erupted from the pad on the door and Nicole decided to follow it. It lead downstairs and was plugged into a generator. She nearly sang as she ran towards it. The redhead forgot how loud generators were and when it roared to life she heard Clickers sprinting towards her. 

Readying her gun, she shot every one of them and stabbed the last when she ran out of time to reload. Waiting for a minute, she decided that no more Clickers were lingering and ran upstairs, punched the keycard through and slammed the door behind her, snapping the card in half as she did. The narrow hallway had two doors coming off it, one would take her to a new part of the hotel and the other lead off into a room filled with bits of food. 

She wolfed down a few bits before wrapping some up in a bit of plastic and tossing it into her bag for Waverly along with four bottles of clear water. She internally thanked the assholes who stopped them for the glorious feast she had just partaken in.

Walking slowly from the room, she made her way out the other door and crept behind a steel bench. Taking in her surroundings, Nicole noted that they were in the kitchen part of the hotel. The restaurant was easily viewable from the kitchen. 

A Clicker roamed the room, but before Nicole had the chance to put it down one of the dicks stormed into the room and smashed it over its split head repeatedly until it stopped moving. 

"That's the forth one today, where are they coming from?" The man asked his companion. 

A man wearing a black hoody with the word Panthers written on the back sighed, "seems more and more people are getting bit, it's a good thing we left New York." 

The first man laughed, "I left it because the army was taking all the rations and keeping them for themselves, I couldn't survive on that and once they killed off my wife and kids, I'd had enough." 

"I left because my wife died but my in-laws hadn't," Panthers laughed back, "couldn't stand them before this and can't stand them now." 

Nicole rolled her eyes, she was never one for idle chit chat. One of the many reasons why she and Xavier had gotten along so well. She slowly moved from metallic bench to metallic bench, spotting a bottle of whiskey placed next to the sink. Grabbing it, she placed a rag inside but left out just enough. Wetting the rag with the whiskey was easy enough, waiting for the men to all come together was the hard part. Once they did she lit the rag with a lighter she had found in the lobby of the hotel and tossed it at all five men. 

It exploded and sent fire everywhere. Nicole covered her ears, she couldn't stand the screams coming from humans and these ones were particularly awful. She poked her head out and spotted all five men on the floor, dead. 

She quickly made her way into the restaurant and spotted a ladder leading out of the room. First things first, she searched the bodies for anything useful and, to her delight, found a whole load of bullets, shivs and a rifle. She triumphantly swaggered over to the ladder with a massive grin on her face and headed up. 

A man dropped down in front of her, punched her and threw the ladder down. Nicole landed in a large and deep puddle with the man jumping on top of her and holding her under the water. The redhead thrashed against the man, but his pure strength bested her. She could feel unconsciousness taking over and loosened her grip on the man's arms. 

Two muffled gun shots rang through Nicole's ears and the weight holding her down was suddenly gone. She sat up as soon as she could and took in a few desperate mouthfuls of air before searching for her saviour. 

Waverly stood a few paces away from them, gun still at the ready. 

"Holy shit." She whispered, as though she was surprised she just shot a gun. 

Nicole stood up immediately and snatched the gun from her hands, "that was a stupid thing you just did." She snapped. 

"What?" Anger flashed over the younger girls face, "saving your life was stupid?"

"No, risking yours coming down here was stupid." Nicole stuffed the gun into her belt before placing the ladder back to where it was. 

"I just saved your life-"

"And you ignored me, I told you to stay put, what would you have done if they had caught you?"

"What does that matter?" Waverly felt herself getting worked up, "if I'd have got caught or if I'd have stayed where I was you'd have died anyway! Then I'd still be fucked because I'll have either been killed or starved to death waiting for you who was never going to come for me." 

Nicole knew she was right, but being the stubborn cow that she was she ignored her and proceeded up the ladders, scowling at each step. 

"You know, where I come from people normally say thank you when you save their life." Waverly yelled at Nicole's back making the older girl turn to look at her before continuing up the ladders. 

The room upstairs was a ball room. The dishes and glasses were still there, completely untouched. It was as though the staff had prepared for the evening meal but no one had turned up. The sight saddened Waverly. 

After leaving the ballroom they found themselves outside again. Neither had uttered a single word to the other after their argument. Nicole knew she should say something to the smaller girl, but thought better of it. They passed a street crawling with stragglers, all armed to the tee with a variety of weapons. 

"Waverly...." Nicole trailed off, pulling the girl in question behind a nearby van. 

"No, I will help this time!" She protested against behind held behind the vehicle. 

"I know you will-" 

"And another thing-" Waverly started before cutting herself off, "wait, what?"

"I need you to stay here and cover me with this," she pulled the rifle out and handed it to Waverly along with a heap full of bullets, "I'm going to try and stealthily take them out, but they'll most probably spot me so I need you to take as many of them down as you can." Nicole searched the other girls eyes and not seeing a single spot of hesitation in them. 

"Okay." Waverly whispered, holding the gun as though it were a precious child. 

"You know how to work it?"

"No."

Nicole demonstrated how to load and reload the weapon, as well as how to aim and shoot it. Once Waverly nodded to Nicole, the redhead moved from behind the car and proceeded down the street. She easily killed the first two men she came across, using shivs. She strangled the next one before she was spotted. 

BANG! 

As soon as she heard it, she felt it. She had no time to dwell as the man prepared to pull the trigger again, but he was stopped just as a bullet hit him in the abdomen. She spun round just in time to see Waverly wink at her and reload. 

That's when she found out how much of a good shot the smaller girl was. Nearly every bullet that parted from her rifle hit its intended target, Wyatt Earp himself would be proud of the girl. Maybe they were related? Nicole would have to ask. 

Not one to leave all the work just for one person, Nicole whipped her .45 out and began to rain fire on the men currently shooting at her. They all fell with a scream. One after the other until Nicole and Waverly were the only two left. The smaller girl made her way to the taller girl with a huge grin on her face. 

"How did I do?" She asked. 

"Not bad." Nicole once again took the gun from Waverly's hands. 

Waverly pushed against Nicole and her eyes burned with anger, "are you serious? Once again I save your butt and you still don't trust me? Fuck you!"

Nicole smiled at the smaller girl, but that only angered her more. The redhead replied, "a rifle is only good from distance, you'd suit something like this," she pulled the shotgun out and passed it over to the younger girl, "besides, you looked hot when you handled it in Purgatory." She finished with a wink. 

Waverly flushed with pride. But something else flushed through her heart. She shrugged it off, no point complicating their situation any more. 

"Your arm." She gasped at the open wound currently nestled in the lower regions of Nicole's arm. 

"It's nothing," she waved the concern away, "I've had worse."

"Worse? What's worse than being shot?" Waverly ripped off a part of her own shirt and coated it in alcohol she found in one of the hotel rooms before wrapping it around Nicole's wound. 

Nicole didn't take her eyes from the younger girls face as she fixed her arm. 

Waverly felt her eyes and suppressed a grin, but couldn't hide the blush. 

They checked over the bodies and took what they needed. Waverly's stomach grumbling snapped Nicole's memory back and she handed the younger girl the bits of food she had in her bag. Waverly took the offerings with a sincere smile as they waltzed around the corners. Their only way out was up a set of ladders that lead to a block of apartments. 

"Straight up," Nicole held out a hand for the smaller girl to hold, "then we'll have to shimmy across balconies."

They made it across three balconies before jumping across a small gap onto another building. They continued to move from building to building before stopping at the sight of the military vehicle searching the alley for the two. They were too high up for it to spot them and it took off again, zooming round another corner. 

Nicole heard Waverly let out a heavy breath and decided against staying out in the open. As soon as they reached an open window, Nicole hopped inside. She attempted to help Waverly inside, but before she could she was tackled to the ground by a strong pair of arms. 

The lad punched her and after his fist collided with her face, she retaliated. She changed their position until she was on top of him, punching him over and over, breaking skin and possibly his nose before she heard the click of a gun. 

A boy, no older than thirteen aimed a handgun at her. Nicole held her hands up, "woah," she quietly said, trying to neutralise her voice, "hey, let's not do anything stupid here." 

Waverly held her shotgun at the boy, her eyes burning bright, "drop it."

The lad under Nicole raised his hand to the other, "hey, it's okay Sam, they're not like the others."

"How do you know?" The boy, Sam, asked what Nicole could only assume was his brother. They had the same dark skin, the same eyes and basically the same face, only ones older than the other.

"Because she'd have shot you already, numbnuts." He joked with Sam. 

Nicole got off the lad and raised a hand for him to grab. He did, with a smirk and a firm grip. 

"I'm Henry, this is my brother, Sam," he pointed to himself and to the younger boy, "you can put that down, we're not like them." He said to Waverly who hesitated before putting the shotgun down, but not putting it away. 

"I'm Waverly," the brunette answered the question that was never asked, but implied, "that's Nicole." She pointed at the taller girl. 

"Nice to meet you," Henry looked Nicole up and down before leaving the room they were currently in, "I know a way out of here, follow me."

Waverly looked to Nicole, as if asking whether or not they should trust the two boys. Nicole nodded and they followed behind the two. 

"Should we?" The younger girl asked. 

"We'll see where this goes, but if it's bad, shoot to kill." She whispered back. 

They followed until they had reached a building that homed offices and meeting rooms. The four made their way upstairs and into a main secluded office. Sam whipped out a bunch of questionable berries. Waverly sat with him and he handed a few to her. 

"Waves, eat them and you'll be shitting for a couple of hours." Nicole threw over her shoulder as she joined Henry who was currently looking out over the darkening city below. 

"We've been stuck in this town for two weeks now," Henry started, not moving his eyes from the city, "we came here in a group, three guys, a girl and us two."

Nicole's mind was suddenly flashed with memories of the two bodies they found just after they had been ambushed and the two running for their lives. She decided against telling Henry, it's better to be ignorant than to be devastated. 

"We've done okay," he smiled as he turned to Nicole, "I mean, we're still alive." 

They both turned to their younger companions just in time to see them throw the berries in the air and catch them in their mouths. They spat them out once they had succeeded and tried again. 

"You suck." Waverly laughed at Sam. 

"You're older than me, you've had more experience." Sam chuckled. 

"Excuses excuses, always excuses." 

Nicole couldn't suppress the smile that engulfed her features, it was rare in the month or so they've spent together that she's seen Waverly so genuinely happy. She wish she could see her smile like that more. 

"Let's let them rest," Henry continued, "might be a good idea to sleep ourselves." He yawned. 

"No," Nicole replied, "I'm wide awake." She lied. Truth be told the day had wiped out every ounce of energy she had. She just found it extremely hard to trust anyone, no matter how big their smile was. 

"If you're not sleeping, I'm not." Henry eyed the redhead before telling the other two to get their heads down for a few hours. 

After an hour of silence, Henry spoke again, "there's a tower, just on the other side of town," he pointed in the direction of the tower, "there's food there and water. That's where we were going before we got ambushed. If you help us get there, we can share it." 

Nicole shook her head, "we have somewhere we need to go."

"Wait, you're passing up the opportunity to stock up on food and water?" He laughed, "Nicole, you're what, 21?"

"24."

"You're 24, you've got plenty of time left in your life to go there, come with us, please." His eyes were pleading. 

"You can promise there will be food?" She asked. 

"Yes."

"Then we're in."

The smile that covered Henry's face was bigger than Nicole had seen on anyone, ever. His deep brown eyes lit up and his body language was nothing but positive. 

_

Two am came round quicker than Waverly expected. Before she knew it she was being shook awake by the very person she was dreaming about. Red hair pooled her shoulders as she dragged Waverly to her feet. She grabbed her red hair and tied it up in a quick messy bun. Waverly watched her friend, (-? Can she call Nicole a friend now?), in awe before snapping out of her trance and following the others out of the door. 

They made their way down the building and into the lobby. Henry was prepared to kill anyone who threatened him or Sam which made the next few minutes easier for Nicole. The two eldest of the four crept round and took out two stragglers who stood guard. 

Henry winked at Nicole, making the redhead slightly uncomfortable. They slowly walked outside, careful to not be caught in the headlights currently surveying the area. There was a makeshift barrier behind the four set to keep out infected. The light was there to spot any infected and there was a guy shooting them with a rifle from next to the light. The two of them were on higher ground to the four. 

Two stragglers walked in front of the gates that were directly facing the barrier, guarding it. They casually talked to each other, tossing banter at one another. 

Henry and Sam crept to the guard on the right hand side of Nicole, whereas the two girls opted to take out the guard on the left. They did so with no complications and Nicole took out her .45 and snuck up the ladder that lead to the place the other two were currently on top of. Two shots of her gun and the two guys were down without further complications. 

Henry tried to wrench open the gate that separated one section from the other, but just failed short. Nicole jumped down and helped. The gate weighed a ton and they found it increasingly hard to move it at all. 

The military vehicle they avoided only a mere few hours ago smashed through a barrier to the right of the four. It aimed it's big gun at them and prepared to shoot. That was the inspiration Nicole needed to try harder to open the gate. They got it open and nearly died shutting it again. 

The truck smashed into the gate in an attempt to open it. The gate stood its ground and kept closed, giving the four enough time to find away out. Another lorry blocked the other entrance, but there was half a ladder sticking out from the side. 

Nicole sprinted over and boosted the the other three up, but when Henry made it to the top, the ladder fell to the floor. Nicole expected the lad to help her up but instead he looked from the gate to Nicole and back again before shouting a quick sorry to the redhead and jumping to safety. 

"Wait!" Waverly shouted at them, "you fucking assholes!"

Nicole panicked slightly, but spotted a way out immediately. Waverly jumped down to join her friend, "we're in this together." She nodded to the older girl, who smiled at her in response. 

"Come and help me lift these shutters." Nicole ran over to another pair of metallic shutters and lifted them as high as she could. Waverly helped and threw herself under before holding them open for Nicole. 

The truck broke through and shot towards the two girls, but Nicole had already rolled underneath and Waverly let go before the bullets hit the metal. 

Waverly was fuming. She shot out a bunch of curse words describing what she was going to do if she ever found Henry or Sam again. Nicole kept silent, letting Waverly shout out her frustrations. 

They got to the front of the building, which was also the safe zone the two boys had jumped to. Nicole smashed through the doors just as the truck smashed through the lorry and shot at the two girls again. 

Nicole pushed Waverly in the direction of a bridge, cars were scattered all across it. They dodged as much as they could, Nicole could hear the truck smash through anything it had come into contact with. The bridge had collapsed into the river below it. There was no where left to run. 

"Nicole, what do we do now?" Waverly asked, desperation in her voice. 

"Do you trust me?" Nicole asked, eyeing up the river below. 

"Of course I do, but-"

"JUMP!" 

Nicole grabbed on to Waverly's hand and threw them both over the edge and into the water. The current was strong and it washed Waverly away from the redhead. Nicole swam as fast as she could towards Waverly and held her tightly in her arms before smashing off a few jagged rocks and knocking herself out. The last thing she could remember hearing is Waverly screaming out her name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: I don't need any validation from anyone. I'm an independent woman! 
> 
> Also me: please tell me you like my works! I feed on good vibrations!


	5. The Sewers.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When your travelling buddy nearly dies for the billionth time, it really puts things into perspective for you. A few things rear their head for Waverly, but will she act on them?

"Nicole! Nicole wake up!" Waverly frantically screamed, cupping the older girls face. 

"Move aside, I'll try." A masculine voice waved away Waverly's worry. He placed his hands over Nicole's heart and began pumping before giving her mouth to mouth resuscitation. 

Nicole woke with a start. Snapping up onto her elbows she spewed out the lake water that she had inadvertently gulped down before her eyes focused on the three people in front of her. Waverly's eyes were puffy, Nicole wasn't sure if that was because of the water or not. Sam stood to the side, throwing small glances to the Earp girl and Henry was looking proud yet sheepishly at her. Henry...

"You asshole," Nicole choked out, raising to her feet and twatting Henry in the face, "I oughta shoot you right now!" She towered over Henry, who was now clutching one side of his face and lying on his back. 

Waverly held Nicole back, "wait, don't, he saved us!" 

Henry raised a hand to Waverly, silencing her, "no," he sat up, "he saved you," he pointed at Sam, "he wanted to go back for you and we saw you in the water, you hit your head really hard and she was flapping about in the water. Going back for you meant putting Sam in danger but luckily we're all okay." 

"It's true," Waverly stepped closer to her ginger friend, "you were out and we were going under the water, Henry jumped in and pulled us both out." 

Nicole looked from Henry to Waverly and back again before extending a hand and helping the lad up. He grinned as he took it. 

"You've got a mean right hook on you." He complimented, flashing a charming smile. 

"You abandon us again and you'll be able to feel full force of that hook over and over until you can't feel your face anymore." Nicole was scary at the best of times, but doubly so at the calmness of her voice and straightness of her face. 

Henry gulped and nodded, "understood."

The moonlight lit up their current location and Nicole scanned around for a way out. Henry, however, had already discovered their exit. 

"There's a tunnel, only a few seconds away from here, we could go through it and hopefully we'll only be a few miles away from the tower." Waverly didn't like the glint she saw in Henry's eyes when he looked at Nicole. But after basically saving both their lives, Waverly wasn't one to say anything. 

The four walked a short distance to where Henry had mentioned. A boat was washed up nearby, completely destroyed by rust and asbestos. Curiosity getting the better of her, Nicole walked over, throat still sore from choking on the water. 

Waverly followed her. They climbed through a rusted hole in the bottom of the boat and hoisted themselves into the bridge. 

"Nicole, look!" Waverly's face lit up, she pointed at a book that nestled itself on the only seat in the bridge, "can I have it?" She grinned, picking it up and scanning through it. 

"Only take things we have to," Nicole shrugged and continued when Waverly looked at her with eyes as wide as saucers, "and if you think you have to take it, you have to take it but it's staying in your bag." 

Waverly squealed and proceeded to read the first page. She loved reading, the books at the military compound where she was brought up had a large library. Most books were often found in the room she shared with her friend Stephanie Jones. Willa often scolded her because she never took the books back, but Wynonna would sneak them back when Willa was gone. 

"Watch where you're going, Waves," Nicole spared a glance at the younger girl who was walking towards the exit, completely engrossed in the book, "there's a step ther-" wham! Falling face first towards the floor, Waverly never let go of the book on her journey down. 

Jumping straight back up, Waverly grinned, "I'm okay!" 

Nicole laughed. Honest to goodness laughed. And Waverly felt her heart melt at the sound, her uninfected arm throbbed slightly but she ignored it, if only to saviour the moment. 

The ginger girl stopped laughing and settled for a large smile instead. She searched the boat and found a few scribbled notes on the board, the only salvageable note was one signed off by a guy called Michael. 

"What's that?" Waverly asked. 

"Some bloke called Michael," Nicole read, "he took the boat and went off shore. He came back when he ran out of food and decided to search around. Judging by the note, he never came back."

"I hope he made it." The smaller girl sighed. 

"As long as he isn't infected or an asshole, I'll hope he made it." 

The two girls made it back to the lads and they passed the entrance to the tunnel, raised up the panel blocking the opening and crawled inside. Henry walked in front of them with Sam by his side. Nicole kept a small distance between the two. 

The tunnel broke off in five different directions, Nicole wanted to go through the third opening, whereas Henry pointed at the first. Not wanting to anger Nicole further, he opted for the redheads, winking at her as they passed through. Waverly caught the action and threw a scowl at the taller boy. 

"I think he likes you." Waverly quietly spat out, failing to hide any jealousy from her voice. 

Nicole didn't catch any venom in Waverly's voice and replied with a raised eyebrow, "everyone likes me, what's not to like?" 

Rolling her eyes, Waverly replied, "oh, wow, that's just irritated me," her voice turned playful and cheery, "that was just so vain," her expression turned slightly sour again, "I meant, he likes you as in he would like to fu-"

Slapping a hand over Waverly's mouth, Nicole strained her ears. In the distance she could hear clickers and before she could tell Henry or Sam at least four had broke out from a near by room and made a run for them. 

Waverly whipped out her shotgun and blasted one of their heads off, Henry clumsily shot another one about five times in the chest and Nicole shot one with her .45 and threw a shiv at the one bearing down on Sam. 

"Sam!" Henry ran over to his brother, "are you okay? Did it touch you?"

"No," Sam looked sheepishly at the corpse on the floor, "it didn't come close enough to touch me." 

Nicole walked out in front, "let's keep moving."

The tunnels lead off into an underground palace of sorts. Rooms upon rooms upon rooms were free to be discovered and explored. There were different chambers leading off to different locations. The four were unsure if they all connected to the same exit. 

They walked through the first door they came by. A noise trap was waiting for them on the other side. Once Henry had opened the door, a basket full of glass bottles fell from the ceiling and smashed onto the floor. They froze for a few seconds before hearing nothing. 

Waverly hung back and Sam decided to join her. They walked in silence for a few minutes before Sam initiated the conversation. 

"So," he started, staring at his feet, "how come you two are travelling?" 

Waverly caught the slight nervous tone in his voice, "we need to get somewhere." 

He nodded, "we're going to find the Fireflies." 

"You sure you want to do that?" 

"Henry wants us to."

"And you? What do you want?"

Sam stopped, "I just don't want to be left behind."

_

Nicole was like a woman on a mission. In fact she was a woman on a mission. Speeding through the tunnels like a mad woman trying to find the exit. Henry tried to keep up with her, but found it difficult. Nicole was glad he couldn't stay on level with her, she'd much rather prefer it if he couldn't talk to her. 

The winks and the coy smiles put Nicole off of him. She wasn't into him or any man for that matter. She found it uncomfortable and creepy when boys lurched to her. 

She always knew she was into women. Nicole had no problems when it came to her sexuality. More people were just bothered about not dying rather than worrying about who Nicole was sleeping with. Back in Boston there was a girl, same age as Nicole, with caramel skin and long dark wavy hair. Kimberley. Nicole had saved her from Dermot's men and she was inducted into her and Xavier's little duo making it a trio. 

A year before starting this voyage with Waverly, Kimberley was killed. The Fireflies had attacked a specific part of Boston, the same part the three lived in. They were stood outside the rations queue when it happened, when the Fireflies opened fire. 

Nicole can still hear Kimberley's cries of pain when she closes her eyes, her dreams full of cradling a dead Kimberley in her arms. 

A noise to her right snapped her mind back into her current situation. She held a hand out to stop the other three so she could listen with more intent. In, what seems to be a work locker, there came a banging. Nicole took out her shiv whilst Henry took out his gun. 

Nicole placed a hand on the handle of the locker and pulled it as fast and as aggressively as she could. Henry gave a small shriek as a ginger cat lurched out from inside. 

"Smooth." Waverly laughed at him. 

The cat was clearly suffering from malnutrition, it probably hadn't had anything decent to eat in days. Maybe an odd rat here and there and some rain water, but it was nothing but fur and bones. 

"Hey," Nicole crouched down to be almost on level with the cat, "it's okay," she whispered to it. She held out a hand and stroked the back of its head. It was too weak to show any signs of fighting back or resisting against the action, "are you hungry? I have a few bits you may like." She whipped a few supplies out from her bag and held it out for the cat to eat. 

Waverly looked down at the exchange with a warm fuzzy feeling nestling into her heart. She had seen Nicole soften up, she had first hand experience of the older girl being gentle and caring, but seeing her do it for a dying animal made Waverly grin like an idiot. 

When the cat finished what little food Nicole could offer, she even gave it some of her water. They were both completely smitten with one another, the cat stared up at Nicole as though she was its Lord and saviour. 

"Is it a boy or a girl?" Waverly asked walking up behind Nicole and placing a soft hand on the taller girls shoulder. 

Nicole picked the scruffy cat up and checked it over, "girl," she stood up to her full height and turned to face Waverly, "we could take her with us?" Her eyes were hopeful, Waverly felt herself melt when they connected with hers. 

"We have to name her first." Waverly stroked the cat softly, as though if any sort of pressure was used by the small girl then the cat would perish. 

The redhead thought for a while before coming to a decision, "what about Calamity Jane? I read about her when I was younger and Xavier and I used to play Wild West in our apartments." 

"Do you like that, hey, Calamity Jane?" Waverly tickled behind the new member of their groups ear, receiving a small 'meow' and a purr. 

"We can't take it with us," Henry spoke up, "it's already dying, it'll be silly to waste any sort of food on it."

The two girls snapped their heads around and glared at the lad. Henry held up his hands in defeat before tugging on Sam's jacket and forcing him forward. 

Nicole held onto Calamity as though she were a precious gemstone. Waverly stood as close as she could to the two, acting as a sort of guard for them both. The cat fell asleep in Nicole's arms and she placed her oh so gently into one of the pockets of her bag, carefully keeping Calamity's head out and into the air. 

"She's so small." Waverly gushed. 

"That's one thing you two have in common." Nicole grinned down to her younger companion. 

The brunette girl laughed softly, "yeah, that and having you to protect us."

"You don't need me to protect you, you do pretty well on your own, Waverly Earp." 

_

They walked for what seemed hours before they came to a play area. Toys were lazily tossed in nearly every area of the room. Sam and Waverly found a ball and decided to kick it loudly to one another. 

Nicole let them play for a while and searched the place. There were a few rooms just off the area and Nicole decided to check them out. 

She opened the first door silently and the first thing that hit her was the stench. She gagged slightly before going inside. No infected. Breathing a sigh of relief, Nicole made her way further into the room. 

It was like a small library, books were resting on shelves, bits of colouring pens and paper lay on the floor with pictures drawn on them. Sally, aged 7. Christopher, aged 5. Justin, aged 11. Lucy, aged 3. Nicole picked them up and examined them, they weren't half bad. 

A bed sheet caught her attention. Specifically what was under the bed sheet was the centre of her attention. Little feet, four pairs, were sticking out from underneath it. A piece of paper with hastily written writing was sitting in front of the feet. She picked it up and read. 

I had to do it.   
They're outside the door.   
It's nicer this way.   
Five bullets, one for each of them then one for me.   
I hope I can be forgiven. 

Realisation crept up on Nicole's features and she all but ran from the room. She could handle the dead bodies of fully grown adults, but from kids? That was something she couldn't stomach. 

Waverly looked up from her game of kick ups with Sam to see the complete look of horror on Nicole's face. She sped over to the older girl and placed her hand on her cheek and forced Nicole to look at her. 

"What happened?" She asked. 

"Nothing." Nicole replied a little too quickly for Waverly's liking, she also avoided eye contact sending alarm bells off in Waverly's head. 

The younger girl hardened her stare, "if you don't tell me, I'll go in there and see for myself."

Nicole threw her self against the door, "no!" She yelled, gaining the attention of the two boys, "it's... It's just not nice." 

"I know what 'just not nice' is, I've seen it for myself," Waverly pulled Nicole away from the door, "tell me, or I'll see for myself."

The redhead scratched the back of her head before sighing in defeat, "there's kids in there, bodies of kids and the youngest is three." 

The brunette girl nodded her head, her eyes gave away the shock and pure horror that the girl was feeling. 

"Let's keep moving." Henry suggested. He walked over to the two girls, squeezed the older girls shoulder and proceeded down another long tunnel. 

They made it down a flight of stairs and through a large gate way before Nicole tripped up on a wire and a ten tonne wall smashed between the group. Nicole and Sam on one side, Waverly and Henry on the other. The wall had a few small holes in it, not big enough to climb through, but just big enough to see through. 

"Nicole!" Waverly yelled through the gap.

"I'm okay," Nicole stood up, the wire cut slightly through her pants and slashed a few layers of skin open, "Henry, help me lift this up."

They all tried to lift the wall, but couldn't even get it to budge. The group looked at each other before a screaming was heard at a distance. 

"Infected." Henry whispered. 

"It's coming from your side!" Sam cried for his brother. 

"Henry, you keep her safe." Nicole said firmly. 

Henry nodded, "and you take care of him," He pointed at his brother "you stay on her ass and you do what she says." 

Sam nodded. 

"Same goes for you." Nicole looked at Waverly, who looked back with a determined expression on her face. 

"Let's go!" Henry grabbed onto Waverly and they both ran off into the distance, mere seconds later a hoard of infected followed, screeching and clawing at thin air. 

"Shit." Sam whispered. 

"We'll find them again, just stay quiet." 

They crept along another small hallway before coming face to face with infected. There was maybe a dozen in a sort of mess hall. Benches, toys, play mats and all sorts covered the room. A few Clickers fell over most of the stuff that lay abandoned on the floor. 

Nicole took out the first Clicker that they came to. It was easy enough, it wasn't moving and was facing the wall. Sam followed closely behind her, careful to not make a single noise. 

A Walker was seemingly crying in a corner, it's hands over its face and crouching down. It was though it was talking, but no words were coming from its mouth. Only sounds. Not wanting to waste a shiv on the Walker, Nicole opted to strangle it, breaking the things neck as she did and quietly placing it onto the floor. 

She killed four more Walkers and one more Clicker before she and Sam found the exit. She boosted the younger lad up before pulling herself up onto a ledge and through another Tunnel. 

They had barely entered the tunnel before they heard Waverly's voice. 

"Fucking assholes!" She shouted. 

Nicole felt her heart race at the sound and ran through the tunnel and down onto a sewer lining. There she spotted both Henry and Waverly shooting at the infected that had chased them away from them. 

"About time!" Henry yelled to the two new comers, placing a bullet right between the eyes of a Walker. 

Nicole only replied by taking out a machine gun and massacring at least three Clickers. 

More and more infected sprinted in their direction. Nicole knew they wouldn't be able to kill them all. She pushed Sam towards a hall way and shouted at the other two to follow. They ran and ran until making it to a staircase. 

Sprinting up at least several flights of stairs, they made it up to a room on perfect ground level. All that stood between them and freedom was a door. A locked door. A locked door that couldn't be opened by force. 

"Sam, if I lift you up can you see what's blocking the door?" Waverly asked. 

Sam nodded, there was a window, just big enough that both Sam and Waverly could fit through. The brunette lifted up the smallest in the group and he fitted through the window perfectly. 

"There's a fridge here, I can't move it on my own." Sam shouted from outside. 

Clickers were making their way towards them. 

Waverly grabbed Nicole's hand and guided her to the door, "help me through." She demanded. 

Nicole nodded and picked the smaller girl up. Waverly also slid through the window with ease. As soon as she was through she attempted to move the fridge but it wasn't budging. 

Henry took out his gun just as Nicole took out hers. The stairs were swimming with infected and they pooled into the room. Nicole rained fire on those who came close to her. 

A scream came from the side of Nicole. She turned her head just in time to see a Clicker bearing down on Henry, it's teeth mere millimetres from he boy's neck. Taking out her .45 from her belt with her left hand and still putting down infected with the gun in her right hand, she shot the Clicker cleanly through its split head and the body slumped against Henry. 

"HURRY UP WAVES!" Nicole screamed. 

As though it was the inspiration Waverly needed, the fridge was moved and the door was open. Henry ran through it first before Nicole got the chance. As soon as the ginger was out from the room, all four slammed the door and placed the fridge back across it, blocking the infected from leaving. 

Waverly started to laugh, "look," she pointed to a sign, written in red paint on the white wall, "'Danger! Infected Inside!' Could have warned us on the other side guys." 

"We should keep moving." Henry grumbled to the other three. 

"Are you okay?" Waverly asked Nicole. 

Nicole nodded, "yeah, I'm fine." 

The brunette grabbed onto the gingers hand and gripped it tightly, "I don't know what I'd do if you'd have, you know, been eaten alive." 

"Try not to think about it, I'm here thanks to you." Nicole smiled, trying to reassure the girl currently clutched onto her hand. 

Waverly laughed slightly, "what? Alive or out here nearly dying every week?"

"I'm alive because of you," she stopped, allowing more distance between the girls and boys and forced Waverly to turn to her, "I'm here because I agreed to be here, and if I'm nearly dying every week, then it's worth it, you're worth it." She added the last part as a sort of whisper. 

"Nicole." Waverly whispered back. She closed her eyes slightly and decreased the distance between her and Nicole. Slowly, very slowly before she placed a tender kiss to the other woman's lips. As soon as the contact was there, it was gone and Waverly was skipping down the street and rejoined the other two, leaving Nicole behind with her mouth slightly ajar. 

Nicole took Calamity from her pocket and placed her on her shoulder. The cat nuzzled into her neck, purring as she did. 

They made their way through a suburban estate. Searching the houses for anything of use. Nicole and Waverly searched in silence. The smaller girl threw soft grins at the taller one. Nicole just blushed and stared at her feet. 

A scuffle and a yell came from the bedroom that they were currently searching. Nicole burst into the room just as two Clickers were pinning both brothers to the floor. Nicole shot the one hovering over Henry before shooting the one over Sam. They both scrambled to their feet and brushed off the bits of infected that fell on their clothes. 

"You two okay?" Waverly asked, checking both brothers over. 

"Yeah," Henry breathed, "they came out of the roof and landed on us."

Sam nodded to his brother, but kept away from Waverly's gaze. 

"How long until we get to that tower?" Nicole asked. 

"Maybe an hour?" Henry replied. 

"Then let's go."

_ 

"Okay, so, I was on my own in a dark room and then this woman came in, threw a helmet at me and told me to ride her," Henry burst into laughter, "and then she turned into a Harley! So I was like, 'oh what the hell' and just before I jumped on it, I woke up." 

The four had made it in one piece to the tower and are currently feasting upon the food Henry had promised them. Calamity was happily gobbling on her food too, Henry was starting to warm to the ginger cat. 

"Have you driven a bike before?" Nicole asked, shovelling food down her throat. 

"No." Henry smiled sadly. 

Waverly raised her hand, "Wynonna has."

"Wynonna?" 

Waverly nodded, "yeah, she used to sneak out with this guy all the time and he had a motorbike, she just to ride it once a week, maybe until they were caught." 

"What happened?" 

"Wynonna was put in isolation for a week and the lad was banished." Waverly shrugged. 

They chatted for a few more hours, but Sam couldn't listen to them. He stood up abruptly and moved into another room, his departure only really alarming Waverly. The other two chatted merrily. 

Waverly followed Sam into the other room. The lad was perched at the window, looking down onto the wet grass with intent. 

"How come you're in here?" Waverly asked. 

"I'm just tired, I can't help but think..." Sam trailed off. 

Waverly approached him, "can't help what?" She asked. 

"When you've turned, if you can turn one way, can't you turn back?" His voice was hopeful. 

"Sam-"

"No, I've thought about it. We're killing the infected, what if there's some part of the person still in there? What if there's a way to get them back? Surely if an infection turned you, you can turn straight back and not be infected anymore?" He turned to face the brunette girl, his face breaking Waverly's heart. 

Waverly sighed, "Sam, as soon as you're bitten you're all but dead. And when the infection takes over, you're dead," she held Sam's hands in her own, "I've seen the infected closer than you and I can promise you, the person they once was is gone. Try not to think about it." She pulled the boy in for a hug, soothing his hair as she did. 

"Okay." Sam whispered, tears threatened to overflow from his eyes. 

"Come, come back out and sit with us." Waverly smiled down to him. 

Sam shook his head, "no, I think I'll just go sleep." He smiled. 

"Oh, okay," Waverly took her bag from her shoulders and fished out something from inside, she pulled out an action figure, "I saw you eyeing this up, but Henry wouldn't let you take it, I think it's called Captain America and I lost his shield, but it's still good." 

Sam took the toy from her hands and tears leaked down his face, he whispered a small "thank you." Before Waverly rejoined the other two. 

Nicole was laughing at something Henry was saying when Waverly opened the door. She smiled at the ginger before settling down next to her and leaning her head on the taller girl, who instinctively wrapped an arm around the brunettes shoulders. 

Henry yawned before laying down on the floor and falling asleep, leaving the other two alone. 

"So," Waverly started, "you two seem good friends." 

Nicole grinned at the smaller girl before laying down herself, "yeah, he's okay."

Waverly lay next to her, both staring at the ceiling, "I mean, he likes you."

"Of course he likes me." Nicole winked. 

"No, he wants to fuck you." 

Nicole chocked on a bit of saliva before snapping her head towards Waverly, "what? No! Really?" 

Waverly felt the jealousy rise, "yeah." 

"Poor guy," Nicole shrugged, looking back at the ceiling, "how do I tell him I don't do boys?" 

The brunette felt relief rush through her, "kiss me in front of him? That might help." 

Nicole laughed and wrapped an arm around Waverly's shoulders, "who said you're my type?"

Waverly sat up and threw a mock offended expression at the ginger girl, "I am cute and I have a nice butt, I am everyone's type." 

"Am I your type?" 

"You have potential."

"So that kiss back there was a potential kiss?" 

"Yes."

"And?"

"And you passed."

Waverly leaned down and captured Nicole's lips once again in a soft embrace. Nicole's thoughts were occupied with conflicting arguments, one wanted to kiss harder and more passionate, one wanted to take her into a spare room, but the one that spoke the loudest was the one screaming at her to stop. To put an end to whatever it is that they're starting, because at the end of the day, Nicole has to drop Waverly off and leave. Leave her behind. 

Nicole pulled away and Waverly lay with her head on the taller girls chest, both finally allowed a few moments of peace. 

Meanwhile, in the other room, Sam began twitching. He could feel it surging through his veins. He lifted up his pant leg to reveal a huge chunk taken from his calf. He laughed manically, it was over for him. His fight was done. 

_

Nicole awoke the next morning to the smell of cooking food. She immediately felt the lack of weight holding her down and looked around to spot Waverly sat in the corner pouring over the book she found back on the boat. 

Henry smiled at her and he stirred the pot, "morning, we thought we'd let you rest for a while before we woke you."

Waverly didn't look up from her book, she was too engrossed by the pages. 

"Why, that's awful kind of you." Nicole sat up and sniffed the air, the food smelled divine. 

"You know," Henry looked up from the pot of food, "me and Sam could join you, we make a good team."

Nicole looked over to Waverly and back to Henry, he kept her safe on a few occasions and is handy under pressure, "yeah, I think that would be a good idea." She smiled up at him. 

"Someone should wake Sam." Henry pointed at the door to the room Sam was in. 

Waverly placed the book down, "I'll go." She smiled and skipped towards the room. 

She opened the door quietly as to not wake a sleeping Sam and closed it behind her. She spotted Sam by the window, twitching and moaning softly. Waverly walked up to him, "Sam, breakfast is ready."

Sam snapped his head round and Waverly knew immediately why he was so engrossed in the possibility that the infected could come back. Because he was infected. 

He launched himself at Waverly, his teeth clattering as they fell through the door and into the room with the other two in it. 

Nicole reached for her gun, but before she could even attempt to get a hand on it, Henry pointed his at her. 

"Don't." He whispered, ready to pull the trigger. 

"He's infected, he's going to kill Waverly, I can't let that happen!" Nicole shouted. 

"He's my brother!" Henry screamed, still pointing his gun at Nicole. 

"Henry, that's not your brother anymore, he's an infected now." Nicole tried to reason. 

Henry cried, "he's my brother, I won't let anything bad happen to him!" Tears fell from his eyes. One could physically see him breaking. He's spent all this time keeping Henry safe and away from any forms of danger and now? Now his purpose is over. 

The sounds of a struggling Waverly made Nicole throw caution to the wind and risk being shot, if it meant Waverly would be okay. She grabbed her gun but before she could aim it at an infected Sam, a bullet fired through the air. Sam wasn't moving. Waverly pushed his lifeless body off her. Nicole's gaze followed the trail of the bullet straight to a weeping Henry. 

Henry still held his gun up, pointing it at Sam's back. His eyes turned red and puffy. Waverly crawled over to Nicole and hid behind her. 

"Henry..." Nicole whispered, holding her hands up and rising to her feet. 

"NO!" He snapped turning the gun on the two girls. 

Nicole shook her head, "don't do this, Henry, we can leave, the three of us-"

"No, don't you see? I have nothing," he sobbed, "less than nothing, I don't have him, I don't have anyone and I don't have a reason to live." 

"Henry, we can get through this, I promise." Waverly tried. 

Henry looked at her, "there isn't a point to me surviving anymore."

He turned the gun on himself and before Nicole could wrestle with him, he pulled the trigger and his body fell to the floor. Waverly screamed. Nicole stood flabbergasted. 

"We.. We should go." Nicole picked up Calamity, placed her on her shoulder before packing up as much food as possible and dragging Waverly out from the tower. 

They were silent for hours before Waverly spoke up, "where to now?" 

"We're going to an old friend's town, Sanctuary, it's called." 

"Who's the friend?"

"John Henry, but he likes to be known as Doc, Doc Holliday."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got halfway through the Hogwarts AU chapter before this popped into my head. 
> 
> Also decided to kill off a major character in one of the later chapters, but unsure who to do it to.


	6. Please Don't Leave Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't get attached. That was the plan. Now that's fucked, what do you do, Nicole?

Late summer became the middle of autumn before Nicole and Waverly came close to Doc's Sanctuary. They ducked and dived from all sorts of infected and non-infected, hiding in abandoned houses and even in the boots of cars. Nicole hadn't enjoyed a single hour of sleep since Henry and Sam. She daren't sleep at the same time as Waverly, not wanting to risk anyone sneaking upon them, she slept two hours at the most after the brunette had awoken. 

They weren't communicating as well as before, when either started one conversation it had ended just as quickly as it started. Waverly felt the heartbreak of losing two people she would call friends, whereas Nicole's thoughts were occupied on her current situation with the smaller girl. 

She knew it was inevitable. She knew the ending of her story. She knew the consequences. She knew she'd end up just like Henry, completely irreversibly attached to their companion and utterly devastated when - not if, when - they were gone. Henry's situation was different, they could have wrote their own ending, anything could have happened between them leaving where they were from and when they finally arrived at their desired destination. 

Nicole, however, was different. There was only one thing that she saw in their future. It was that they didn't have a future. She was to drop Waverly off and leave. She's repeated this in her head nearly a hundred times, trying to make her next decision more of a sympathetic one, to not only Waverly, but Nicole herself. 

She couldn't plan anything for her life after Colorado. Xavier was most probably dead, Waverly will most probably die, there is nothing for her in Boston. Staying in Sanctuary may be her only option. 

They were travelling through the forest for a few days. Rain bounced off their coats and their boots squelched with every step. Waverly enjoyed the forest, the different colours of green that surrounded the grass and leaves, the way the animals run to try and avoid any sorts of moisture and her favourite, the way the landscape dictates itself, it isn't flat like the cities, it's all sorts of different levels with mountains and hills and all sorts coming off it. 

"Are we there yet?" Waverly moaned. She wasn't opposed to walking around with Nicole, but when she was completely soaked to the underwear it was about time to find shelter. 

Nicole had prepared herself for this question for nearly a month, surprisingly this was the first time Waverly had asked, "nearly," she replied just as they came to a beaten path leading towards a small river, "we just need to pass the river and climb up a hill." 

They walked down the path and strolled along side the riverbed. Waverly skipped as they passed, splashing in puddles and giggling as she did. Being locked up for nineteen years made sure that her run ins with water were a rarity. If it wasn't for the occasional baths twice a week, she'd have never been exposed to water other than to drink. 

Nineteen years. She was in that military compound for nineteen years. If it wasn't for that boy she'd have still been in there. She'd have celebrated her twentieth birthday there too. She hasn't yet told Nicole that they'd missed her birthday, they were far too preoccupied with trying not to die. But she did spare a few seconds to sing herself a birthday song. 

"What's that?" Waverly asked, pointing at a tiny building connected to some sort of contraption that spread across the width of the river. 

"A hydroelectric power facility-thing," Nicole replied, quickly jogging up the stairs of the small building, "Doc said once I see this I'm basically in Sanctuary." 

She pulled open the door that lead to a small room that consisted of nothing but a control console. Waverly stood outside, hoping and praying to not have to swim through the water between the contraption slowing down the flow of water and the dam that held back what Waverly could only imagine was a huge lake. 

"Do we have to go up there?" Waverly pointed to the other side of the lake and up the metallic stairs that lead up a giant hill. 

Nicole walked out of the room and followed Waverly's gaze, "yeah, we'll have to swim across."

"I'm not sure if I've-" 

"Yep, I remember, you can't swim," Nicole raised a hand to Waverly, "I'll find something for you to stand on because you'll have to hold Calamity too."

Taking the small cat from inside her bag, Nicole placed a kiss on Calamity's head and passed her to the brunette girl softly before jumping in the water between the hydroelectric pump and dam. 

"She's given you more affection than I've had from her in a while." Waverly sighed, cradling the cat in her arms. 

Nicole could proudly say that she was a strong swimmer. When she was twelve she was forced to learn how to swim, her and Xavier were hiding from the guards around Boston and they fell into a huge pothole that consisted of water. They hid under a bit of fallen in road and had to stop one another from drowning. Ever since then they had always come up against the challenge of water, progressing better and better with each meeting. 

Seeing under the water was hard, especially when the water was filthy, luckily the water here was as clean as possible. All sorts of things were nestled on the bottom of the river, bits of train parts, a car, a few shopping trolleys and quite a number of fish. 

A massive slab of wood was trapped under a metallic engine of sorts. Nicole swam over and pulled it from the clutches of the engine and pushed it to the top of the water, following it as it went. 

As soon as her head broke the surface, she pushed the wood towards the small girl standing obediently where Nicole had left her. 

"About time," Waverly faked her annoyance, "I may have had to jump in after you and we both know how that would have turned out." 

Nicole scoffed and accidentally inhaled some water. She choked slightly as she held out the wood for Waverly to jump on, "hop on this and I'll drag it to the other side," Waverly nodded and did as she was asked, "and don't drop Calamity!" She added as an after thought. 

As soon as Nicole had pushed her to the other side, she jumped off and helped Nicole up and out of the water. The redhead smiled softly at Waverly before patting her awkwardly on the head and proceeding up the steps towards the actual hydroelectric plant. 

Waverly held back with Calamity still in her hands. Nicole had been off with her for a while and it was really irritating the younger girl. Her mind was occupied with saddening thoughts and she almost missed the small squeal that came from Nicole. Almost. 

"What?" Waverly asked with panic in her voice. 

Nicole turned to her, face as red as her hair, "it's nothing, just... Erm..." She pointed at something on a nearby tree. 

"A spider?" Waverly asked, completely confused. She walked over and grinned at the tiny eight legged creature. 

"Don't touch it!" Nicole backed away, arms held up as if ready for a fight. 

Waverly placed Calamity softly on the floor and gathered the spider in her hands, "don't you like spiders?" She asked, fluttering her eyelashes. 

Calamity ran over to Nicole and pawed at her jeans, the girl ignored her though, "no, I don't."

"Are you scared of them?"

"... No." Nicole hesitated which didn't go unnoticed by the brunette. 

Waverly grinned, "you are! You can take on men twice your size and herds of infected, but one teeny tiny little spider has you terrified!" 

Nicole huffed and crossed her arms across her chest, "Wave, just get rid of it so we can keep going." Her eyes were pleading and Waverly couldn't refuse her. She placed the spider back on the tree and skipped across to the main gates that separated them from the facility. 

Waverly pulled at the gates with Nicole just behind her. A bullet lodged itself in the ground right next to Nicole's foot.

"You seem to be lost," a man in a fur coat snarled at them from a lookout point inside the gates, "let me help you find the way out." He shot in the direction the two girls came from. 

Another man had jumped up along side the first and held a gun at them as well, "tell your charming companion to kindly put her weapon down."

Nicole looked to Waverly, who was positioned as if ready for a massacre, and held out her hand to the smaller girl, gesturing her to put her shotgun down, "it's okay, Wave," she whispered, "it's weird that you two wouldn't recognise me." She smiled up to the two men. 

"Nicole Haught, as I live and breathe." The second man grinned, his moustache perking up as he did. 

"John Henry Holliday." Nicole returned the grin. 

Doc motioned for the gates to be opened so the two girls could make their way inside. The gates had hidden away a huge factory of sorts. The two men had jumped down quickly and were waiting to welcome them in. 

"Never thought I'd see your sorry face 'round here." The man in the fur coat gave Nicole a toothy smile. 

"Never thought I'd need to come," Nicole shrugged, "nice to see you too, Robert." 

Robert dropped his smile, "Bobo." He corrected. 

The redhead smirked, "I know, but I like Robert better, it irritates you more." She patted his shoulder and walked past him. 

"Ms. Haught, to what do we owe the pleasure?" John Henry's eyes twinkled. 

"Well, Doc, I needed to talk to you," she added the last part as a hushed whisper, "alone, please." 

Doc nodded to her. He walked the short distance to Bobo and muttered something into his ear. Bobo grimaced, whatever Doc had said didn't go down well with the furry coated gentleman. 

"So, girl." He started, talking to Waverly. 

"My name is Waverly." She snapped at him, one thing she couldn't stand was a rude person. If you're a friend of Nicole then you're a friend of Waverly so don't be rude. 

Bobo rolled his eyes, "Waverly, come, we have a sort of fun room upstairs, we could shoot some pool or play table tennis," he shrugged and guided her inside the facility, "whatever you want, leave the two boring sods to their chats." 

Doc turned to Nicole and pulled her inside the same door the other two had walked through, Bobo and Waverly going straight up a staircase and Doc and Nicole going left through a hallway. 

"What is this place?" Nicole asked. 

Doc grinned at her, "this is Sanctury," he stretched his arms out, "well, this isn't, this is just our power resource," he guided them through more and more rooms, "we've finally got enough engineers to fix the goddamn thing." 

They entered a room that Nicole could only describe as barracks. Six beds hung from the walls, each with large sacks coming off them. A guy was fast asleep in the one on the end, holes in his socks and small pieces of food stuck in his beard. 

"Listen," Doc pulled her over to one of the sacks, "I'm glad you've come, I've had this for a while and I thought you ought to have it." He reached inside and pulled out a photo, handing it to Nicole. 

She stared blankly at it for a few seconds. The picture was taken before the infection. A three year old Nicole grinned from her fathers shoulders whilst her mother had her arms wrapped around her older sister, Amy. A field of perfect green grass, lovely looking trees and a blue sky set the scene. 

Nicole had blocked out most of her memories about her family, thinking about them didn't bring forth any thing happy. Instead it brought nothing but horrible thoughts of death and loneliness. Waverly popped into her head too, making her choice easier and easier. 

"Keep it," Nicole handed the photo back and kept her voice neutral, "I need to talk to you."

Doc frowned as he took the picture back, "you mean you want a favour?" 

Nicole nodded, "I-"

"Not here," Doc interrupted, "in my office."

They left the barracks and Doc decided to show Nicole around the main part of the facility. 

"If these pumps work, then we'll finally have power for the town." Doc grinned at her. 

"Hey! Drop it down carefully this time!" A dark skinned man in a hard hat shouted across the large room. A curved sheet of metal was slowly dropped onto one of the pumps.

"We ready?" Doc yelled at the two dozen men on the facility floor, they all cheered at him, "ready, three, two, one!" He pulled a lever and the pumps started to move. Light illuminated the room and everyone bar Nicole cheered. 

Doc turned to her and engulfed her in a hug, "the kids will be able to watch a movie tonight before bed."

"Doc.." Nicole pleaded. He sighed and dragged her towards an office type room. Doc sat himself down at a desk and pushed a chair towards Nicole. They stared at each other silently before Doc spoke up. 

"Here," he opened one of the draws of the desk and took out a glass bottle with a dark liquid inside, "we've been trying to brew our own whiskey, it's not too bad actually, try some." He pushed the bottle over to the redhead who took it and gulped down a huge mouthful. 

"Oh god," she winced, "that's vile."

Doc grinned, "give it back if you don't like it."

"No, you're alright." Nicole replied, taking another huge gob full before placing it back on the desk. 

"So." Doc started.

"So," Nicole repeated, "I need you to do something for me."

"What?"

"The girl, Waverly, I need you to take her somewhere."

The request hung in the air for a while before Doc started laughing, "what? Why?"

"Listen to me," Nicole pleaded, "she's a very special girl, she could hold the key to everything. I need you to just take her to the University Of Eastern Colorado and drop her off with the Fireflies."

Doc scoffed, "and so I have to risk my life again for you? No."

"Doc, I wouldn't ask if I wasn't desperate." 

"Why are you desperate? Why can't you do it?"

Nicole inhaled a deep breath, "because I don't think I'll be able to just leave her. In the end, she's most probably going to die and I can't risk being more attached to her than what I already am." 

Doc contemplated Nicole's request, "have you slept together?" He asked. 

"No," the ginger replied firmly, "but it might happen and if it does it'll kill me to leave her, I can't do it again." 

Doc opened his mouth but before he could he was cut off by the sounds of gun fire coming from outside the room. 

Five or six blokes shot at Doc's workers, killing at least three of them. Nicole and Doc hid behind a steel railing, aiming shots at the men currently shooting at them. Doc was easily the best shooter Nicole had ever had the pleasure of knowing. Every shot hit a target. The men dropped like flies, weapons scattered across the floor in front of them. 

"Wave." Nicole gasped out running in the direction Bobo had taken the smaller girl. 

The 'fun room' consisted of a bar, multiple games that didn't require electricity and a room in the corner. Two burley men smashed their shoulders against the door, desperate to get inside the room. Nicole threw one of her scissor traps at the blokes and took shelter behind the snooker table. A large boom and a small scream indicated to Nicole that her bomb was successful. 

She ran over to the room, "Wave, open up, it's me." 

The door slowly opened, Waverly cautiously poked her head out. As soon as her eyes met Nicole's she jumped into her arms, both falling to their knees. Doc checked Bobo over, a slight graze from a bullet etched on his abdomen. 

"Are you hurt?" Nicole asked, cupping Waverly's face in her hands. 

The brunette nodded, "I'm fine, he got shot, but I think I may have shot him," a smirk worked its way onto her face, "for being a dick to me." 

Nicole sucked in a huge breath before releasing it and pulling Waverly back in for another embrace. Doc watched their exchange, his mind slowly changing. He's seen Nicole attached to a bunch of people in the past and one by one she's had to watch them leave. But this one was different, Doc could practically feel the love and adoration coming from Nicole for this girl. 

"There were these huge guys," Waverly started, "and they started bolting up the stairs, but Bobo took out his gun and BANG BANG BANG! Took most of them out!"

"Okay, slow down." Nicole rubbed her shoulder. 

"No, listen, I took out the gun you gave me and Bobo was like, 'that's a big gun for a small girl' so I shot this one guy in the chest and Bobo shut his mouth!" The smaller girl grinned, excitement poured from her voice as the adrenaline took over, "then more started coming and we both ran out of ammo so we jumped over all this-" she waved her arms around the room, "-and hid in that room when a bullet smashed through the window and hit Bobo-"

Doc stopped listening to their exchange and instead turned his gaze onto his friend, "goddamnit!" He cursed under his breath. 

"What?" Bobo asked, still clutching his stomach. 

"I need to talk to you." 

_

"No." Bobo firmly smacked Doc's arm as they walked outside. Nicole had followed them but left Waverly inside. 

"Bobo, I don't know what else to say," Doc took off his hat, "I have to do this."

Bobo laughed, "you don't owe her anything! One mistake, one mistake is all it takes and you're dead and we lose the best shooter we'll ever have."

Doc shook his head, "listen, I have to do it."

Bobo's face turned red with anger, instead of arguing further with his dearest friend, he turned on Nicole. 

"Here we go." Nicole whispered to herself. 

"You!" He shouted, poking her in the chest, "If anything happens to him, it's on you!" He spat as he talked, pushed past Nicole and straight back into the facility they had just left. 

The redhead sighed, "I'm sorry if I've got you in trouble."

"Don't worry about it," Doc smiled, "I'll take that girl of yours to the Fireflies."

"Doc, I-"

"On one condition."

"Yeah?"

"You have to stay here, at least until I get back." 

Nicole contemplated his offer, the land Doc and Bobo had secured was well defended, it had power, food and water. It was the ideal place for Nicole to hang her hat. The only thing missing from Sanctuary would be Waverly. 

"Deal," Nicole stuck out her hand for Doc to shake, which he did, "but I'll have to talk to Waverly first, might be best to head out in the morning, let her have a night of rest." 

Doc nodded. A noise from his radio took his attention and he started to walk away from the ginger girl. He stopped in his tracks halfway through the radio conversation before turning back to Nicole. 

"Its your girl, Waverly, she's taken a horse from our stables and she's headed out the territory." 

"Oh fuck." 

_

Follow the tracks. Riding through the countryside was a fantasy for Nicole. She's always wanted to enjoy the landscape from the back of a horse. The only toy she had had when she was young was a tiny wooden pony. She used to imagine it nearly twenty times bigger and with her sat on its back running through all sorts of greenery. 

Follow the tracks. This was her first horse ride. It wasn't living up to expectations. For one she didn't expect Doc to be her riding partner, who admittedly looked rather at home next to her, galloping away with a determined look on his face. She also never realised how painful riding a horse can be, she never prepared herself for the impact riding a horse brought. 

Follow the tracks. Nicole's head was spinning. Thoughts of Waverly being captured and even killed fluttered through her mind like a bad smell through her nose, unhelpful and seriously not needed. How dare she run off. After everything Nicole has risked getting her here, she just takes a horse and pisses off. She should be more worried than angry, but the image of Xavier floating into her mind makes the rage evermore present. The only friend she has is most probably eaten, shot dead or infected. And Waverly is tossing Xavier's sacrifice into the bin right before Nicole's eyes. 

Follow the tracks. Nicole shakes her head. Xavier and Wynonna could still be alive. They could be with Chrissy. Chrissy could still be alive. Willa.... Nicole didn't care too much for the eldest Earp, but she could be alive. And Waverly better be dead or else Nicole would kill her. 

Follow the tracks. How can Nicole be sure these tracks belong to Waverly's horse? Or that they're even horse tracks? All sorts of weird creatures live in a forest. Unbeknownst to them, it could be a rogue horse, or a deer, or... Okay, Nicole, stop or you'll give yourself a migraine. 

"Up here." Doc shouted over to her.

Doc was an exceptional tracker. He's the type that could find a needle in a haystack. Nicole was glad to offload Waverly onto him. Offload? Nicole didn't like that word, it made it seem like a burden and Waverly most definitely wasn't a burden to Nicole, she was a delight but she was becoming much more than just a delight for the older girl. 

Nicole followed Doc. The tracks lead off to an old abandoned ranch house. It looked untouched. Unsoiled. Peaceful. A horse was parked out front, patiently waiting for its rider to come back out. That's when Nicole saw red again. 

Tying up the horse she used to reach their current location, Nicole ran through the house, not bothering to arm herself as she did. No one downstairs. 

"Waverly!" She screamed as she took two steps at a time up the stairs. 

"In here." Came the reply. 

Waverly was sat by the windowsill reading a journal. Nicole felt the anger rise more and more with every second that passed by. 

"Waverly." She tried to keep her voice as calm as possible, but it came out rather shaky. 

The girl in question just huffed, closed the journal slightly and stared off outside the window, "the owners of this house didn't believe in the infection. They actually stayed inside this house for a year after the outbreak. Then their mother went out one night and never came back," she sighed as she looked straight at Nicole, "imagine that, someone you love and care about just leaving you." 

"Waverly, what on earth are you doing here?" Nicole spat, "Do you have any idea what you're doing? Have I just risked my life time after time just for you to run off?" 

The Earp girl let out a sickening laugh, "so, what? You can run off but I can't?"

"I'm not discussing this here with you." Nicole waved her hand impatiently to the brunette girl. 

"No," Waverly stood up, "we can talk here. You can tell me how you planned on fobbing me off to the first person you've come to," she started to move her arms erratically, "or maybe you can tell me why everyone keeps leaving me? My mother. Daddy. Willa. Wynonna. Champ. Everyone keeps leaving me, but I thought you were different," tears started to sting the girls eyes, "I thought you'd never leave me, I thought we were a team, I thought you really liked me, I thought-"

"Well you thought wrong," Nicole grabbed onto Waverly's wrists, "and you listen to me, Waverly Earp, you will go with Doc and you will be dropped off to the Fireflies and you will do whatever you have to in order to stop this infection, but you'll do it without me."

The tears that clung to Waverly's bottom eyelids disappeared, she wouldn't allow herself to cry. She didn't want to cry. She refused to shed another tear for someone else that was going to leave her behind. 

"What am I doing wrong?" She whispered so quietly Nicole had to strain to hear. She continued when she heard no response, "why does no one want to stand by me? What's wrong with me?" 

Doc entered the room, "I do not wish to intrude, but there are a few men downstairs that require our full attention." 

Nicole was ready for a fight, her anger was being replaced by a devastating sadness that she was not familiar with. The men downstairs didn't know what they were in for. Nicole took out the first gun she could and snuck out the room. She spotted the first guy in one of the other upstairs bedrooms, checking himself out in the full length mirror. He was too busy looking at himself to notice the redheaded girl sneaking up behind him. He fell to the floor with a thump, his neck broken and twisting at an odd angle. 

The other three downstairs were no problem either. Doc taking care of two and, surprisingly, Waverly all but blasting the head off the last guy. Doc certainly looked impressed. 

They all hopped on their individual horses and galloped back to Sanctuary. Silence hung between them all. Nicole faced an internal dilemma, Waverly brooded and Doc watched the sun go down. 

"Right," Doc started as soon as they put the horses back in the stables, "there's a shack of sorts set up for you in the town," he handed Nicole a key, "you're in 25," he looked over at Waverly, "there's two beds in there, one for both of you."

The two girls nodded their heads and proceeded down a hill towards the actual Sanctuary. The shacks looked rather like old army bunkers, but smaller. They had beds in there and a desk and chair, nothing extravagant. The bathroom must be communal. 

The two girls changed into a new set of clothing that was waiting for them and climbed into their respective beds, still not uttering a word to one another. 

Waverly was the first to break the silence, "I get it." Was all she said. 

"Get what?" Nicole was lying on her back, she turned her head towards the other girls bed. 

"Why you want to stay whilst I leave," Waverly turned to her side, facing the redhead, "you're scared."

"I am."

"You're scared that I'll leave you just like you're leaving me, you just want to be the first to do it." 

"It's the only certain thing in the world," Nicole sighed, "that either way, one of us will be leaving the other."

"Can I come over? If it's our last night together I'd really like to spend it with you instead of over here." 

Nicole really didn't want Waverly to sleep next to her. Oh, heck, who is she kidding? All she wants in this world is for Waverly to be by her side. Tonight was their last night. The last chance Nicole was going to get to touch the smaller girl, to hold her and maybe even the last opportunity she was going to get to kiss her. 

She nodded, a single loan tear escaped the ginger girls eye. Waverly smiled sadly and slowly walked the short distance from her bed and into the older girls bed. 

"Please don't leave me." Waverly whispered into Nicole's collarbone. 

Another tear ran down Nicole's cheek, "tonight I won't. Tonight it's just you and me." 

Waverly lifted up her head and rested her chin on Nicole's chest, "you mean that?" 

"Yes."

"Give me something to remember you by."

Nicole could feel her heart pound, "what?"

Waverly gulped, "if this is the last night I'm going to get with you, I want to remember it for all the right reasons, not as a night of tears and emotion and heartbreak." 

"Wave-"

"No," Waverly chocked back a sob, "I want you. This is my last opportunity to be with you and I want it all," the two girls synchronised their tears, "please."

"Okay."

_

The next morning dawned on the two. They dreaded seeing the sun rise through their window. Neither got any sort of sleep. Nicole had fulfilled Waverly's wish, the night was filled with the ripping of clothes, moans and kisses. 

Once they had stopped themselves, they just lay there, wrapped up in each other's bodies. Nicole staring off at the ceiling whilst Waverly stared at the wall. Their heartbeats were the only things that moved. The only sounds were coming from their breathing. 

Waverly had laid all her cards on the table last night. She offered everything she had to Nicole and wasn't disappointed with the response. She felt a secureness within Nicole's arms, she didn't feel like the infected burden she was, she was made to feel human again. She risked a look at the older girl who was still staring off into space. Waverly felt safe, she's felt safe with Nicole for weeks and now she had to put all her trust into someone else. Someone different. Someone who wasn't Nicole. 

Nicole. She has never even trusted her older sister, Willa, more than she currently trusts Nicole. The one person she never thought would abandon her. The one person she thought would stick by her no matter what. But she was just trying to save herself heartbreak. She was saving herself and Waverly couldn't hold that against her. She was the only person who didn't treat her like a child. Like a tag along. There was only one other person like Nicole and he was gone. He was the first to die for Waverly. And she blames herself every day for his death. 

Do I love her? She'd ask herself for what it seemed the hundredth time. She feels something deep for Nicole. It burned her heart whenever she thought of leaving without her. It killed her thinking of being with someone else, continuing this journey with someone else, ending this with someone else. It didn't seem right. That's because it wasn't right, it had to be Nicole. 

"We'll have to get you ready soon." Nicole whispered into Waverly's brunette locks. 

Tears leaked from Waverly's eyes, "okay." Her voice broke. Nicole's heart broke. This isn't fair. But it's fate. Fate brought them together and fate is tearing them apart. 

They dressed in silence. It wasn't an awkward silence. It was one filled with emotions, it spoke louder than any word. Their feelings mixed with the silence, neither had to talk, they just knew. 

Have you ever been so deeply in... Love? Was this love? It certainly felt like love to Nicole. But surely it was too early to call it love. Her mother used to say, 'it doesn't matter if it's a week into a relationship or ten years down the line, when you know that it's love then you know.' Nicole definitely felt something powerful, but was it love? 

"I'm going to miss your stupid face." Waverly smiled to the older girl, the sadness still was something she couldn't shift from her face. 

Nicole returned the smile, "I'd let you take a picture, if the last voice you'll hear can't be mine, then I'd want the last face you'd see be me."

"Maybe Doc has a camera." The smaller girl shrugged. 

This was it. This was the last time they'd ever see each other. Nicole has been shot and stabbed and it hurt less than potentially watching Waverly go. She really thought she'd stick around until the end. Henry and Sam threw her. And now she was going to watch her old friend ride off with her love. 

Her love. 

Doc waited for them, horse packed and ready to go. He greeted them with a smile and wink, "ready?" He asked Waverly. 

"No," Nicole shook her head, "no, I started this," she took a heavy shaky breath, "I have to finish this."

Waverly felt her whole chest lift, what?! She wanted to scream, but for some reason no words would come out so she opted to gape open mouthed. 

"I'm sorry Doc," Nicole threw her arms around the man's neck, "I can't let you do this, she's my responsibility, I have to see this out to the end," she turned to Waverly, "I owe it to her." 

Doc kept his genuine smile and broadened it, "Nicole, take my horse and go, remember that you're always welcome here, you too," he winked at Waverly, "you have a mean shot with that gun of yours missy and I reckon you'd do well here." 

"I need you to take care of Calamity though," Nicole had almost forgotten about her small pet, "she's in my shack, please take care of her."

Doc nodded and took back Nicole's key, "I'll keep her well fed and she'll be waiting for you for when you come back."

The two girls were completely grateful to Doc. Nicole was once again in his debt. She always followed through on her promises, no matter the consequences. 

They both mounted the same horse and headed off out from the back end of Sanctuary and off into the morning glaze, Waverly hugged Nicole from behind, gently snoozing on the other girls back. Her mind was finally at rest. This time she wasn't being left alone. This time someone had stuck by her. This time was different, this time she had Nicole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was listening to angsty Taylor Swift and Fifth Harmony songs when I wrote the last bits of this. 
> 
> One more chapter until ya'll find out how Waverly was infected. Brief warning, you may (may!!) like Champ. May.


	7. The Glass Building.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finding your desired location is hard. But finding someone that doesn't want to kill you is harder. Watch your step, Nicole.

It took three months to get to the University of Eastern Colorado from Sanctuary. Three months of near starvation, killing infected and ducking and diving away from none-infected. They searched towns, forests and small villages in hopes that they could find anything to help them on their travels. They had obtained coats, snow boots and thick wool pants in an attempt to keep out the cold. No snow fell, but it was only a matter of time. 

The two girls found normality in the night hours. They slept in trucks on highways or up tree's in forests, cuddled together just enjoying one another. The more and more time they spent with one another prompted them to become increasingly intimate. More often than not they found themselves getting more handy with the other. Doing anything other than mild groping was extremely awkward considering they were riding on top of a horse. 

Waverly often jumped down and pulled the other girl with her into the back seat of the cleanest car they could find. 

They found themselves outside the campus gates, riding through them and onto the grounds. Nicole scanned the area and kept her .45 in her hand, just in case. 

"Doesn't seem like anyone's here." She commented after seeing a large lookout post abandoned. Barbed wire and all sorts of pointed metal stuck out along the ground of the lookout posts. 

"Look," Waverly pointed to her left, "the campus is huge, they could be anywhere." The object the brunette was pointing to was a large wooden sign with a paper map attached to it displaying all the buildings around the campus. 

"Think, did Willa mention anything about this campus?" 

"Not really, just that there's loads of glass," Waverly sighed, "but if you think about it logically, they'd have to be in a building with access to medical supplies, a gas main and all sorts of surgical tools."

The two scanned the map, "what about the science block?" Nicole suggested. 

Something clicked in Waverly's mind, "the glass building," she whispered, "the science block is the glass building," she grinned and turned Nicole around, "you are a genius." 

"Well, I do try." She returned Waverly's grin and leaned in for a quick peck on the smaller girls lips. Not at all satisfied, Waverly pulled her back in for a more passionate embrace. 

The grounds of the University had an ere sort of silence. No signs of life, whether it be human, infected or animal, made its presence known. It set Nicole's nerves on edge, Waverly didn't seem defused by the lack of noise, but Nicole couldn't help the paranoia that infested her veins. 

Waverly often wondered whether or not she'd have ended up in a place like this had the infection not broke out. She's always loved learning and she was really rather good at it, but would she have made it to college? 

Years of rot, no maintenance and, what looks like, full blown wars had destroyed most of the buildings on the campus. It suited both girls as the grounds were easier to guide their horse through. 

"I wonder what happened to the people here," Waverly piped up, "like, what happened after the infection broke out."

Nicole shrugged, "some may have stayed, some may have gone."

"Must have been horrible though," The brunette snuggled against the taller girls back, "not knowing what was happening to their family, not knowing whether or not they're okay." Her eyes started to well. 

"Hey," Nicole grabbed onto one of the arms wrapped around her waist, "you know how resourceful Willa is, she'll be okay and Wynonna is with Xavier. All three are probably all in that building shouting at each other because we're not with any of them." 

Nicole wanted nothing more than for what she said to be true. She expected Xavier to be here, he had to be. The detours Nicole has taken on their journey here should all but guarantee Xavier getting here before her. Wynonna didn't seem the type to give up easily and was more the type to fight for everything she has left in the world. Everything she has left came in the two forms of her sisters. 

"Okay." Waverly whispered back. 

For some strange reason, the grounds outside the science block had a group of monkeys shuffling around outside, screeching and clawing at thin air. The two girls hopped down from the horse, tied it up in a secluded place and cautiously approached the building. 

The only way in was through a window on the first floor. They both clambered up and straight into the building. 

A noise overhead startled them, "they're upstairs." Waverly whispered. 

They cautiously tiptoed up three flights of stairs, hearing more and more noises from a room on the far side of the floor. Despite the sounds, there were no sign of life anywhere. Nicole had expected a guard or even a scientist or anything, but instead she was greeted with a ghost town. 

Waverly was eager to find someone, someone who could tell her where Wynonna was. There was one room left to search, one room that could have meant the difference between ending the infection and its evermore spread. 

"Wait." Nicole held her arm out in front of Waverly. 

"Nicole, there's no one here but they could have left a clue somewhere in that room, they could have left with Wynonna and Xavier and-"

"Waverly, there's about as much chance at a clue in there as there is anywhere else." Nicole sighed. 

The smaller girl knocked away Nicole's arm, "either stay here or come in with me." 

A scuffle behind the two girls stopped Nicole from replying. A screech was heard from behind some of the work benches in the chemistry rooms. Cautiously the girls took out their weapons and held them up, walking slowly towards the noise. A monkey, no taller than three foot hurled itself at them, eyes blood red and teeth stained the same colour. Nicole kicked it away, the force of the impact making it skid along the floor. The monkey screeched at them and ran away, possibly to gain more allies. 

"Okay, I'm going in." Waverly ran back towards the undiscovered room and threw herself at the door, "oh shit." She gasped. 

Nicole strolled towards the room, putting her weapon away. The sight that they had imposed upon wasn't one that Nicole hadn't seen before. In fact she became accustomed to seeing a single corpse with a bullet wound on one side of their cranium. Suicide. Rather than fight their way through the infected and crazed monkeys, they chose the quicker way out. 

"Nicole, they're a Firefly." Waverly held up a pendant with the Firefly symbol on it.

The redhead checked over the jacket of the corpse, finding a few scraps of paper and a recording device. 

"Looks as though whoever this person is, they documented whatever they seemed necessary." Nicole held the recorder up to her face. 

"Play it." Waverly whispered, slowly making her way to her companion. 

"This is Doctor Terry Barlow," the voice of the corpse uttered from the device, "this is the last recording I shall do before I die. They've all left, I told them to go. Supplies are short and the infected have gained more and more followers. These people they've hired are stupid, there are marks on the maps Earp created to show where you can and cannot go and they decide to take on an infected army all on their own. I can still hear their screams," a silence followed, Nicole thought it was over, "we tried to find a cure, tried to test it out on the monkeys we found roaming the courtyards, but to no avail. It's impossible. There's no point to it anymore." A few sobs erupted from the speaker, "Jennifer, I'm so sorry. I told you to leave because I didn't love you anymore. But that's not true, I'm infected. I lied, I love you. Please take care of Jimmy. And to anyone searching for the light, go to Saint Mary's in Salt Lake, we help anyone.... *BANG*"

A gun shot echoed from the device just as another gun shot slammed straight through the window, narrowly missing Waverly's head. 

Roars came from down the stairs, "they're here!" 

Waverly pulled Nicole down to take cover from another flurry of shots aimed their way, "they're not Fireflies." She whispered. 

"No," Nicole grabbed onto Waverly's hand and forced her out the room, "they're scavengers. Looking for one thing." 

"What's that?" 

"Something you'd rather be shot than have happen to you." Nicole's eyes went dark as she trained them on the stair case. 

Only six men had come to either kill them or take them. Nicole had taken out nearly all of them with Waverly sneaking up on another and easily disposing of him before one launched himself at Nicole. With just a bannister separating the two scuffling and the floor nearly two stories below. The man held Nicole against the wooden bannister, one hand at her neck as the other reached for his gun. He held it up at Waverly. He was too slow as the younger girl shot him with her own gun. The force from the impact slamming both bodies over the edge and hurtling towards the floor. 

For Nicole time seemed to move in super slow motion. Falling from two levels and slamming into the floor created a whirlwind of pain she wasn't ready for. She hit the ground with some force and a metallic stick sunk straight through her abdomen, piercing right through. 

"Nicole!" Waverly screamed. Nicole couldn't tell where her companion was, her eyes wouldn't work. All that she could see were stars. 

"Nicole, we have to go!" Her voice was louder this time 

Forcing her eyes open, Nicole frantically looked around for Waverly. The girl in question was tucked up behind a wall and shooting anything that moved. Once the last body fell lifeless to the floor the smaller of the two girls sprinted towards the one still impaled on the floor. 

"Nicole, come on," she grabbed one of the ginger girls arms and hoisted her up, trying to ignore the grunts of pain, "I know it hurts, come on." 

One arm holding her stomach and the other around Waverly's shoulders. Nicole forced herself forwards, banging off every surface she came up against. Blood poured from the two open wounds, running down her front and her back. Her head was swimming, it was though she wasn't really there. 

Waverly guided them downstairs and through the lobby of the building. She shot a few more men that had advanced on them. 

"Not too far now, Nicole, keep going!" Waverly shouted across the room at her. 

Nicole was able to hold herself up, she was amazed at how strong her legs were proving to be. She left blood stained handprints on nearly every surface before she burst through the double doors and outside into the cold winters air. She fell once again, Waverly ran back to help her back up and to close the small distance between them and their horse. 

"I'm okay." Nicole muttered out once they had reached the horse. 

Waverly shook her head and gave Nicole a boost up, "maybe I should be in front considering you can't really move." She shrugged. 

Nicole contemplated Waverly's suggestion for a second before agreeing and pushing herself back slightly to allow Waverly to take the reins of the horse. 

They rode for nearly an hour before Waverly felt Nicole lean against her. If it wasn't for the fact that Nicole was surely losing consciousness, Waverly would have savoured the situation, but as she felt Nicole's lifeless body slip to the side and off the horse, the warmth Waverly felt had been replaced with fear. 

"Nicole! No, hold on!" 

_

Snow was one thing Waverly had always wanted to experience. And now she has she can't wait for it to go. All it did was inconvenience Waverly and make her really really cold. Most her clothes were soaked due to being outside, with no Nicole she had to rely on herself to bring back food and water. 

She fashioned a makeshift bow and arrow from a few supplies she had found in a house she searched. She had gotten quite good with it, she caught herself two rabbits and currently she was spying on a rather large deer meandering around a frozen lake. 

Peaceful moments were a rarity in Waverly's world. The last time she was truly at peace was from before she was infected, from before she became important, from before she had to stop being a teenager and start acting like an adult. 

Champ, his name was, Champ Hardy. He was cocky, a smartass and most of all, he adored everything about Waverly Earp. He brought her that peaceful moment. Despite the fact that it is a favoured memory, it is also one that ended in tragedy. Champ was the first to die whilst Waverly waited for her time to turn that never did come. 

_

Every day was the same for Waverly. Get up, dressed, head straight to drills and classes before returning to her room to retire for the evening. No days off. 

"There are no weekends off when it comes to fighting infected!" Her drill sergeant shouted at her unit every time someone uttered anything about having a Saturday night off. 

Waverly liked to be alone. With Willa and Wynonna being much older than her she was often found alone. When Willa had left to join the Fireflies Wynonna spent more time with her younger sister but the older the middle Earp sister got the more she snuck out with her friends. 

Waverly didn't have many friends, she thought them to be unnecessary. What's the point getting to know people when they were ultimately going to die. She has a roommate, Stephanie Jones, but she'd hardly consider her as an friend. She was loud, arrogant and self loving, something Waverly hated in a person. 

She befriended a small boy when they were thirteen. He had grown over the years and went from being smaller to Waverly to towering over her. She wouldn't admit it, but she liked him a heck of a lot more than what she originally did when they first met. 

He left her. Just like Willa and Wynonna. Because everyone just leaves her in the end. It's as though she's cursed. He ran away just like Willa. Where he's gone, she hasn't a clue but she's sure he's joined the Fireflies. 

So ever since Champ had left, she cried herself to sleep. She's allowed herself over the years to get attached to three people and she hasn't got a clue whether or not two of them are dead. Wynonna always comes back, but she still leaves. She doesn't take Waverly with her, she just goes. 

Stephanie had left too, but Waverly was over the moon she had gone. She was a snorer. 

Waverly found herself relaxing on her bottom bunk when she heard a click come from her room door. She pretended to be asleep as a figure made its way towards the bed. 'Don't be infected.' Waverly pleaded in her head as she gripped a knife under her pillow. 

A hand reached out and grabbed one of her legs. Waverly thrashed her arms around, hoping to harm her assailant. 

"Woah, Waverly, calm down!" A masculine voice aggressively whispered into the night. 

"Champ?" Waverly whispered back, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. 

The lad in question smiled sheepishly, "hey." 

If looks could kill, Champ would be dead a million times over, "you," she smacked his arm repeatedly, "absolute dick!" 

Champ stood there and took everything Waverly threw at him, "I'm sorry!" He held his arms over his head. 

"Sorry doesn't make up for the past year!" 

"Wave," he whispered grabbing her wrists and forcing her to stop, "I'm sorry, I had to leave."

"Where did you go?" 

"Fireflies."

Silence filled the room. Waverly knew it, "you're an idiot." She gritted her teeth. 

"Look, Wave, I don't want you to be mad at me, I have a surprise!" He eyes lit up, "but you can't have it yet, you have to come with me." He held his hand out for Waverly to grab. 

"Okay," she couldn't help the grin that took over her features, "but don't get us killed."

"Would I do that?"

"Probably."

"Don't you trust me?"

"Not really, but I suppose I'll risk it this one time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry it took this long to upload! In all honesty it took me ages to find the motivation. But it's here. 
> 
> I do love criticism and love. Let me know your thoughts!


	8. I need medicine.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What do you do when someone you haven't seen in a year comes back in your life? You go shopping, of course. Don't be too loud, Waverly. Otherwise Champ could be chomped on. 
> 
> Can you trust strangers? What if those strangers give you what you need? What would Nicole do, Waverly?

"Champ, where are we going?" Waverly complained after jumping from one roof top to another. 

Champ turned his head to her and grinned, "you'll see soon enough."

Champ had guided them out of the barracks, through a few secluded streets and straight up a block of apartments. He hadn't uttered a single word about his motives or his desired destination. Waverly was starting to get slightly agitated at the lack of knowledge, she wasn't used to being clueless and she certainly didn't like it. 

After jumping from another block of apartments onto the roof of a large centre of sorts, Champ opened up a window and offered for Waverly to jump down first. 

"Ladies first." He smiled. 

"No, you first," Waverly grabbed onto the heavy window and held it open for him, "age before beauty." She winked. 

Champ rolled his eyes, "you're like six days younger than me."

"And don't you forget it, grandpa." 

"Grandpa? Oh, okay, I'll remember that." He pointed a finger at her before hopping through the open window and helping the brunette girl through. 

"Champ, it's dark." Waverly complained. She wasn't afraid of the dark normally, just when she's in uncharted territory that could possibly house hundreds of infected. 

"Hold on," Champ grabbed onto her hand and lit a match, "I had a torch round here somewhere." 

"If you keep holding that it'll-"

"OUCH!"

"-burn your hand."

Champ whimpered, "okay, that hurt like a bitch."

Waverly couldn't suppress the giggles that came, not that she wanted to either. She hadn't laughed since before Champ first disappeared. 

Champ had finally located the whereabouts of his torches and handed one to Waverly before heading out from the room they were in. They walked once again in silence. This time it wasn't accompanied by any sort of agitation or awkwardness. 

Waverly still had her thoughts whooshing around her head. Why did he leave? Why did he come back? What's he trying to prove here? 

"Waverly," Champ started, hand still clasped in Waverly's, "welcome to one of the biggest shopping centres in the state!" His grin was wide as he looked at Waverly expecting his face to be mirrored onto hers. 

Waverly looked around, mouth wide, "Champ," she gasped out, "the power is working."

"I know, I turned it on before I came to get you, I needed to know that it worked before I brought you here." 

The whole place was lit up. The lights were on, the merry-go-round was up and turning and the photo booth was chiming out pleasant music. 

"Champ, what if there's infected here?" Waverly was suddenly hit with the current situation of the world. 

Champ released her hand and shrugged her off, "I took care of them, just go into the shops that have their barriers up, I'm not sure about the ones that have theirs down." 

"Oh, well, that's a peaceful thought." 

The lad sniggered, "come on, let's have a go on this."

They both ran towards the merry-go-round and hopped on, Waverly grabbed herself a shinny white horse whereas Champ grabbed the one next to her with its head ripped off and only one leg left.

"You know, there's plenty more nice and pristine ones." Waverly called over the music. 

Champ rested his head on the bar that ran straight through his horse, "yeah, but none of them are next to you," he made her blush, "and besides, it's the ones that are the least loved that need our love the most." 

"Such a sap." 

"Handsome sap." He corrected. 

"Wynonna would kick your ass if you said that in front of her."

The ride began to slow, "and that's why I'm here with my favourite Earp and not the one that scares me the most." 

They both hopped off and Champ guided them to the photo booth, "come and have a picture with me." 

"How do you know it still works?" 

"I guess we'll find out."

After four different goofy poses it was time to print off their photo's. Anticipation gripped Champ and Waverly could see how much those pictures would mean to him had the machine worked. 

The booth started to make strange noises and after mere seconds the photo's were printed and ready to be taken by its customers. 

"I like these." Champ whispered, he took the sheet and ripped it in half, keeping one part for himself and the other for Waverly. 

"I get the pig nose and the cross eyed." Waverly lifted an eyebrow at the lad. 

He grinned in response, "I get the goofy teeth and the kiss on the cheek." 

"You'd better savour that last one, it's the only time I'll ever kiss you." 

They wandered the mall for a while before stopping at a fancy dress shop and climbing through the open window above the door. 

"Spooky." Waverly commented after jumping in after Champ. 

The lad was no where to be seen, she searched behind all sorts of shelves and even behind the counter, but Champ wasn't anywhere. 

She began to panic slightly, "Champ, I swear to god if you're trying to scare me I won't hesitate to kick your ass." 

Slowly, she walked again from shelf to shelf, careful to not make any noises. Once she passed a shelf full of gory looking stuff she felt a hand on her shoulder. She whipped round just in time to see a clicker launch itself at her. Only, it wasn't trying to eat her. She punched it in its face and kicked it in the shin before it cried out in pain.

"Waverly, what the hell!" It gasped out. 

"Champ?" Waverly wrenched the mask off Champs head and threw it back at him, "dude, I could have stabbed you, you stupid a-hole!" 

Champ dragged himself to his feet, "oh come on, it was funny."

"Yeah, kicking you was funny."

"Come on, I have a few more surprises for you."

Waverly sighed and followed Champ through a different door and into a new undiscovered part of the mall. 

They walked into an electrical store. Lights beamed down from everywhere, old arcade games, old television sets that haven't yet been smashed and light bulbs from the ceiling. 

"I filled these up before I got you too." He tossed a water gun at Waverly.

"What do you want me to do with this?" She asked, "kill infected with it?"

Champ laughed and made his way over to the brunette, "no," he leaned over to whisper in her ear, "water fight!" 

With that he ran behind a few shelves to take cover, laughing as he did so. Waverly wasn't one to back down from a fight. It was the Earp blood in her, never give up was her family motto. Or well, it was Willa's motto that Wynonna and Waverly lived by. 

Water sprayed through the air hitting one another as they ran through the store. Their laughing gave away their locations. Waverly had managed to successfully soak Champ more than he had managed to get her. By the time the water had ran out they were both nearly on the floor, out of breath and still chocking out giggles. 

Champ looked around for a few minutes whilst Waverly caught her breath, "hey," he called out, "do you still have that Walkman I gave you a few years ago?"

Waverly caught up with him, "yeah," she took it from her pocket, "I carry it everywhere, why?"

"I wanna see if it works," he fiddled about with a stereo for a while before managing to plug the Walkman in and turning the speakers on, "bingo!" He shouted as music began to flood the room. 

'Dance with me  
Dance with me.'

"I think we should do what the artist wants." Champ held out his hand. 

"To dance with him?" Waverly took his hand. 

"Dance with me." He pulled her closer. 

'Dance with me  
Hold me closer  
Closer and closer   
Much closer as the music plays.'

They began to slow dance to the upbeat music. Just enjoying one another's company. Waverly's head was still swimming in questions. She blurted them out. 

"Why did you leave me?" She whispered into his chest. 

"I had to," he replied, ducking his head to whisper into her hair, "they were planning on killing a bunch of us and I was on that list. Willa told me to join her so I did." 

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was scared that you'd come with me."

"Why?"

"I don't want you to be in any kind of danger. You being with them means you're okay whereas you being with us means you'll be in constant danger and I couldn't let that happen."

Waverly backed off slightly, "that's not your decision to make." She whispered. 

"I know," he replied tilting her head up, "but Waverly, I love you and I'd kill myself before letting anything bad happen to you because of me."

Instead of replying, Waverly leaned up on her tiptoes and placed a soft kiss on Champs lips. It was only quick and it had to be. A screech was heard from behind one of the shelves as a Clicker thrashed its arms about and ran at them. 

"Waverly! Run!" Champ barked, pushing Waverly in the direction of the doors. No good, more infected were piling through there. 

"Champ, the vents, we can go through there!" Waverly pointed to the roof. 

They had both gotten into the ventilation shafts unharmed as they crawled through. Their weight was way too much for the metallic material and they fell through it and onto the hard marble floors of another room. Another room full of infected. 

"Wave, run!" Champ once again barked. 

They ran and ran and ran but one had caught them. It's yellowing teeth sunk straight into Waverly's arm taking a massive chunk of flesh. Champ grabbed it by its neck and snapped it in two. Not before it managed to take another chunk, this time out of the boys hand. 

They kept running, Waverly was bouncing off every surface, getting progressively weaker as she went on. Champ held onto her and they burst straight into the entrance hall to the shopping centre. It was clear of infected. Well, it won't be soon. 

"Your hand." Waverly gasped grabbing Champ's infected hand and holding it in her own. 

"Your arm." Champ replied. He eyes stung with unshed tears. 

Waverly looked down at her arm, it was oozing all sorts of weird shit. This was it. This was how they die. 

"I'm so sorry." Champ whispered, tears rolling freely down his face. 

Waverly shook her head, "no, this is my fault too, I could have said no."

"I got us into this, I got us killed," he chocked out his words, "I'm sorry, I screwed up again."

"Hey, maybe we can make this interesting." 

"What do you mean?"

"Make a pact, we both stay here and see who gets turned first."

Champ laughed slightly, "yeah, we could make it all romantic and lose our minds together." 

"Anyone ever tell you you have a funny idea of romance."

The lad chuckled, "no, but then again I've only ever been interested in inflicting my ideas of romance onto you." 

"Wow, on deaths door and you're still smooth." 

"Only for you."

"Such a sap."

"Handsome sap."

_

Waverly remembers that so vividly. Even as she watches the deer prance around without a care in the world, she can still remember watching Champ twitch and mumble. She can still remember him eventually dying. She can still remember him coming back and attacking her. Only, it wasn't him. Nothing about that man was Champ anymore. He was just another Walker. 

She shook her head and wiped away a few tears before taking aim at the large deer in front of her. She hit it straight through the neck but she hadn't killed it. It ran and ran and ran until it couldn't anymore. Waverly chased it, rabbits were a fine trophy to bring back but a deer? A deer was guaranteed to keep her fed like a king for a few days. 

It had managed to run into an old abandoned factory of sorts before finally giving up and collapsing onto the snow, blood staining the white sheet as it did. 

Waverly ran over to it and carefully pulled out her bow, wishing it a quick prayer before dragging it away. She had barely made it two steps before two men had walked in on her. She whipped out her shotgun and held it up, her face not showing any signs of weakness as the two men approached. 

"Hey, it's okay," the first man spoke, he was older than his companion with a patchy beard and a receding hairline, "we don't want to hurt you." 

Waverly didn't reply, she kept her gun held up between the two men.

"Not much of a talker?" The first one asked, "I'm Tobias and this is Peter," he pointed at his younger accomplice, "we live just past this factory, we have children, women, this deer could help feed us all."

"It's mine." Waverly barked. 

Tobias scratched his head, "maybe we could help each other, this deer is way too much for just one person to eat, maybe we could share?"

"No."

"Maybe you and any of your companions could come over and break bread with us?"

"No."

"Well, kid, you're not making this easy for me."

"You could just turn around and leave."

Tobias laughed, "I haven't seen a single piece of edible food in weeks, I can't leave this delicious deer, especially with nearly forty mouths to feed."

"Tough luck."

"What about a swap deal? What do you desperately need? I have it."

"I want your guns." Waverly demanded, still not moving her own gun. 

Tobias contemplated her demand, "okay," he slipped off his rifle from his shoulder and took away Peters pistol, "here," he handed them to Waverly, "anything else? Clothes? Medicine? You name it."

"Medicine," Waverly gasped out desperately, "I need medicine."

Tobias nodded his head, "okay, Peter, go back and fetch us the medicine."

"But Tobias we need that for ourselves!" Peter protested. 

Tobias glared at him, "go back." He snarled through gritted teeth. 

Peter nodded and begrudgingly made his way back to his settlement, mumbling profanities has he did. 

"Well, maybe we could talk." Tobias resumed his conversation. 

"I'd rather just wait in silence." Waverly still held her gun up.

Tobias sighed, "come on, let's get this deer out from here and into shelter, if the infected get a sniff they'll be all over us."

With the help of Tobias, Waverly dragged the deer into a small room. Tobias sat down whilst Waverly kept her shotgun by her side, keeping both eyes on the strange man. 

"You're making me paranoid." He laughed. 

Waverly didn't reply, instead she kept her eyes trained on Tobias. It wasn't as if she didn't trust him, but she knew better than to be relaxed with someone she didn't know the intentions of. 

Minutes of silence passed by. Tobias tried once again to get the name of this mysterious girl and to see who her companions were but Waverly kept quiet. 

"You must have people." He tried. 

"I do, loads." Waverly replied. In truth she only really had herself at the moment. 

Screeched halted Tobias from making any other enquiries to the sort of company Waverly was keeping. Infected has found them. They had followed the smell of fresh blood. Within seconds the room was surrounded with infected, Waverly shot as many as she could and Tobias begged for his rifle back. Waverly knew better than to give it him and after a while of killing infected with a pointed stick he shoved his hand down his pants and retrieved a small pistol. 

Waverly raised an eyebrow to him. 

"What?" He replied, "shouldn't that mean that you should trust me. I could have pulled it out long ago and shot you, but I didn't."

Waverly didn't have time to argue as the infected had broken down the door, they piled in. Tobias smashed open a pair of doors from behind them, grabbed Waverly by the collar and threw them both through the doors. He closed them with a band and pushed a row of lockers onto the floor blocking the way for oncoming infected. They ran up a narrow pathway and into another room. The room was completely blocked off from nearly all angles besides the way they had entered. 

Infected were heard screeching behind the doors. They were managing to push them open. Unfortunately for them they could only manage to get one in at a time which suited both Tobias and Waverly. Instead of using up bullets, Waverly took out her bow and arrow and Tobias took out a rather large meat cleaver and they worked together to chop down as many infected as possible. 

After the last Clicker fell to the floor, Tobias clapped Waverly on the arm and pushed her back towards the deer. Luckily it had been untouched by the infected. 

They sat back down in silence before Tobias spoke up again. 

"You know, you're pretty good considering you're just a girl." He complimented. Well, it felt like both an insult and compliment to Waverly. 

"Thanks." She murmured. 

"In fact, my men tell me there's these two girls roaming around here killing every single one of the men I sent out to the University a few days ago." He looked her dead in the eye. 

Waverly raised up her shotgun again. 

"I wonder if it's you," he stood up, "they said one of you are dead, impaled, fell to the floor from their horse, dead."

Waverly felt her heart hammer in her chest. 

"So, my question is, why should I let you leave?" 

"Because you don't have a choice." Waverly replied, her voice full of confidence despite the pure anxiety she felt. 

"True, but I'll be coming for you." He smirked at her. 

Peter returned with a brown bag full of medicine and handed it to Waverly who took it and slowly removed herself from the room and sprinted back to her horse. 

"You're just gunna let her get away?" Peter growled. 

"Yes, she's getting the medicine for someone, I want to know who." Tobias glared at the deer before taking its head and pulling it back towards his camp. 

Waverly rode as fast as the horse could go back to her safe house. Locking the creature in the garage she made her way down the stairs and into the basement where an unconscious mumbling figure lay shaking under bedsheets. 

"Nicole," she whispered, "I have it, I have medicine for you." 

She pulled the covers from Nicole's shaking body and lifted up her shirt, "I'm sorry I couldn't make the stitching better," she smiled sadly, "but I like scars," she traced the outline softly with a finger, "this may sting but it'll help with the fever and infection." 

She held out her two vials and placed two fresh needles onto the side. After filling both with the necessary liquids, she injected both into Nicole's abdomen. 

"Please wake up, Nicole," she whispered into Nicole's hair, "I don't think I want to keep going without you." 

She pulled Nicole's shirt back down and rewrapped her up in the blanket before settling herself down next to her. She wrapped one arm across Nicole's shoulders and allowed herself to drift off into a slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To make up for lack of action since August, I've done another chapter. Longer than the previous, but it'll set some brains to rest. 
> 
> Like always, let me know if you still like it. And if you're still reading it!


	9. I'm Infected. And Now You Are Too.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Surviving isn't just going from day to day and hoping you'll stay alive. Surviving means sacrifice. Sometimes it could mean you or them. If you risk your life for her it doesn't mean you're both surviving, it means you'd rather them survive than you. 
> 
> Just keep hidden till I get there, Waverly, don't do anything stupid.

"The little bitch is around here somewhere!" A voice shouted out waking Waverly up. 

She frantically scanned her surroundings before quietly hopping up and leaping onto an upturned bucket so she could reach the tiny window near the roof and look out. Dozens of heavily armed men were searching the houses around her. 

Waverly jumped down, "Oh no," she whispered to herself, "shit, shit, shit!" She ran over to her bag and packed three guns and her bow and arrow inside before turning to a still unconscious Nicole, "I'll lead them away," she knelt down by the ginger girls head and stroked a hand through her hair, "I'll come back, I promise." And with that she leaned down and placed a soft kiss onto Nicole's freezing forehead. 

Careful as not to make any noise, Waverly crept upstairs and back into the garage to fetch her horse. She gave it a small pat on the head before offering it a small amount of water. 

Pulling the garage doors open, she leapt straight onto the back of the horse and pelted down the street. Screams filled her ears as the surrounding men took aim at the horse. Bullets rained through the air, narrowly missing both Waverly and her hairy companion. 

A holiday lodge lay rest at the end of the rather large road and Waverly headed towards it. A shot rang out from the gun of a near by straggler and the bullet pierced the neck of Waverly's brown stallion, making it twist and turn before slumping to the ground. The pure weight of the horse pulled itself and Waverly over the edge of a tiny cliff. 

Quickly removing herself from the now deceased horse, Waverly ran for cover. Spotting a rather large pipe that easily fitted her, Waverly crawled through. She hoped that none of the men could squeeze through, but she was rather hoping they'd try and get stuck halfway through. 

"Okay, it's okay," she rationalised to herself, "stupid shit tickets." She quietly blew her tongue at the men still stuck behind the pipe before continuing on. 

She was currently at the side of the lodge, well, she was near the side of it. A couple of large pieces of rock stood between herself and the lodge. 

"Have to find a way out," she whispered, then groaned, "talking to yourself? That's the first sign of madness."

She climbed up and over a couple of boulders toward the back of the lodge. A large group of around five or six men were patrolling the outside. She hadn't a clue how many were inside, "just be silent." She once again quietly told herself. 

Sneaking behind a large crate, she spotted a man walking towards her. She took out her bow and arrow and let one fly straight at him, silencing him. She easily took care of the rest of them without rousing any suspicion. 

"Wait 'till I tell Nicole." She grinned to herself, collecting as many bullets as she could carry. 

Making her way towards one of the sides of the lodge, she attempted to climb one of the locked gates. After about five failed attempts she cursed to herself and looked for another entrance. The only other way out was to make her way into the lodge itself. She moved a nearby bin and shoved it just under a fallen in bit of roof, climbed on it and jumped in. 

Once again she had to be silent. She hadn't a clue how many people were here nor where they were. She opted for a knife in one hand and Nicole's .45 in the other. 

She walked as quickly and quietly as she could, taking out a few men that walked past her hiding place before spotting the front doors and running to them. Before she got there, however, a large pair of arms grabbed her. 

"Hold on now girlie, I've not finished with you yet." Waverly looked up to see the sickening smile of Tobias leering above her. He pressed a cloth to her face and she blackened out within seconds. 

_

Pain. Intense amounts of pain was all that there was to feel. Sure she's felt worse than this on many occasions, but this was agonising. But, if she's felt pain that must mean she's still alive, right? 

Nicole's been shot, stabbed and tossed from tall buildings, but impaled? No, she's never done that before. First time for everything. 

She doesn't remember what happened after it went through her. All that comes flooding back is the pain she felt and the blood she spilt. She remember's Waverly's desperate voice calling out to her. 

Waverly. 

WAVERLY. 

Nicole forced her eyes open, the light from the tiny window illuminated the room and slightly blinded her. Not having time to let herself adjust, Nicole threw the covers off of her and sat up. Wrong move. She crumpled back down, moaning and cursing. 

"Waverly!" She pathetically called, "Waverly!" 

Lifting herself onto her knees slowly, Nicole crawled over to where her bag lay abandoned and without company. Waverly had taken her bag. She wasn't here. Where was she? 

Tossing the bag around her shoulders, Nicole forced herself up, ignoring the pain that spread through her body, she made her way clumsily up the stairs and slammed her body against the door and forcing it open. 

"Waverly!" She called again. No answer. This wasn't good. 

She searched the house for any signs of the younger girl. After finding none she smashed through a window and tossed herself out. She fell with a thud to the front porch, her legs still not working right and crawled behind a wooden fence. 

Luckily Waverly left her with a rifle, so she could at least arm herself. After a few minutes of stumbling around in the snow, her legs started to remember how to walk. She was still not entirely convinced she could successfully perform hand to hand combat so decided to sneak as quietly as humanly possible. 

Two men, around forty each in age, were standing casually next to an old rundown shop, chatting easily. 

"He got her." The first said to his friend. 

"Tobias? Didn't think he could." The second sniggered. 

"This isn't a laughing matter, Steve, the girl killed nearly half of our men." 

Steve's voice fell, "I can't wait to get my hands on her." 

"Tobias said he's chopping her up straight away, no chance of her getting away and finding that bitch friend of hers." 

Nicole felt her heart hammer. 

"Have they found her yet?"

"No," the unnamed bloke scratched his head, "but if she needed that much medicine from us, she won't need to be found." 

Nicole decided to reveal herself. Taking her rifle by the barrel, she swung it straight into the unnamed mans face, knocking him clean out and before Steve could do so much as squeal like a pig, Nicole had rounded on him and knocked him out just the same. 

She pulled each one into the shop, tying one up on a radiator and the other up on a chair both facing away from the other. 

Nicole threw unclean water at both the men, waking them up instantly before punching and kicking the man that was currently tied to the radiator. After the skin on her knuckles were coated in blood, she stopped, walked over to the man in the chair, pulled out a knife and a map and forced him to look at her. 

"I'm going to ask you this once and you're going to give me a straight answer, I'll place this knife into your mouth and you'll point at where this Tobias has the girl, got it?" 

The unnamed one was in the chair and he nodded. Nicole placed the knife in his mouth and he quickly pointed to a small shop on the map. 

"This better be the same place your friend points to or I swear to god I'll take this knife and cut you up into little pieces." Nicole snarled. 

"It is, I swear it, he'll point to the same place." The desperate pleas almost made Nicole feel sorry for him. 

She nodded, placed her arms around the man's neck and easily snapped it with just the flick of her wrist. With that she rounded on the other guy. 

"He told you where she was!" He yelled at her, "I'm not telling you shit."

"You don't have to," Nicole pulled out her rifle, "I believe him." And pulled the trigger. 

_

Waverly awoke to the smell of rotting flesh and terrible body odour. She hoped neither of the smells came from her as she squinted her eyes to take in full focus of the room. A carcass lay on a table a few feet in front of her and the man, Peter stood by it. 

She crawled forwards but smacked into bars. She was caged up. She might have felt flattered that they felt the need to lock her up if it wasn't for the complete sinking feeling she got every time Peter hacked off another part of the carcass in front of him. 

Raising herself to her feet, she shook the metallic bars as noisily as she could, making Peter snap round to her. He grinned as sickly as he could before walking out the room and returning a few minutes later with Tobias. 

"Hello, girlie," Tobias threw her a warm smile, "I'm glad to see you're awake."

Waverly kept quiet. 

"I bet you're hungry," he placed a plate of food under the small slot under the bars and put a cup full of clean water next to it, "don't worry, it's your deer." 

"You're a monster," Waverly dropped down to her knees and shovelled the food into her mouth, taking long mouthfuls of water in between, "let me go." She shouted out once the deer was gone. 

Tobias sighed, "listen, I only have a few minutes to spare your life, if you tell me your name then I'll try and convince my guys to not want to kill you," he smiled again, "they want revenge, but if you tell me your name and the whereabouts of your friend, I can help you."

He placed a hand on one of the bars and Waverly slowly grabbed onto it, "you'll spare me?" She whispered, giving him puppy dog eyes. 

"Of course." He moved his hand from the bar, but kept it in Waverly's. 

Waverly smiled sweetly before her eyes turned dark and she twisted his index finger until it made a sickening crack. Tobias grabbed onto Waverly's collar with his good hand and smashed her as hard as he could against the bars over and over again before he let go. 

"Goddamnit kid!" He yelled, grabbing onto his hand and stomping to the door, "what am I going to tell the boys now?" He shouted at himself. 

"Waverly!" Waverly gasped out, eyes glistening again. 

"What?" He snapped. 

"Tell them that Waverly is the name of the girl," she looked helpless for a second before she threw her arms against the bars, "that broke your fucking finger!" She snarled. 

"You're going to regret that." 

Nearly half an hour went by before anyone came back to see to her. This time it was both Tobias and Peter that came for her. They wrenched open the gates and pulled her out, placing her as sloppily as they could on the bench. 

A lightbulb went off in Waverly's head and she reached across to Tobias and bit down as hard as she could on his hand and didn't let up until she drew blood. He smacked her over and over until she let go. 

"You fucking bitch," he yelled picking up a meat cleaver and slamming it down inches away from her head, "I'm going to enjoy eating you."

Waverly gasped out, "you can't eat me."

Peter laughed, "why not?"

"I'm infected!"

The room went silent once again. 

Waverly looked straight into Tobias' eyes, "and now you are too." She pointed at his hand. 

Peter looked from Waverly to Tobias and back again, "where?" He murmured. 

"My arm."

Peter pulled the material up and nearly threw up at the sight that he saw. 

"That isn't real." Tobias whispered, realisation dawning on him. 

"It looks pretty real to me." Peter panicked. 

"She'd have turned by now." 

"She could have only just been bitten!" 

They bickered for a small while and Waverly took full advantage. Taking the cleaver that was still lodged beside her head, she swung it and thrashed it straight through Peter's neck before bolting from the building. 

She could hear Tobias' screams as she jumped out of a window and into the snow storm that was fast approaching them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided to do smaller chapters in hopes to actually finish this. I haven't a clue how Waverly did it, but Nicole's up and being the same old badass. 
> 
> Thanks so much for the kudos and comments. Means a lot guys! :D


	10. I've found you.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waverly has to do this on her own. She's never been all alone before. It's a test. An examination of sorts. How will she fare if Nicole were to die? 
> 
> First rule of being an Earp; never give up. Even if your life was fleeing. You can do this, Waverly.

"Fuck it's cold." Nicole grumbled, teeth clattering together as she hugged her arms around herself. 

The shop the man had pointed to was an old butchers. Nicole was terrified at what she was bound to stumble upon. If the men were correct, Waverly was already chopped up into little pieces. 

She made her way through abandoned alleyways, careful to not make any sort of noise or indication that the girl that needed a boat load of medication was up and freely moving around. Whilst she was on her own, stealth was her only option. 

After a few close calls, Nicole had finally located the butchers. Careful not to make a noise, she lifted up the steal shutters of the delivery door and closed it behind her. Turning on her torch, she scanned the area. 

"Oh no." She whispered to herself, her heart dropping in her chest at the sight of Waverly's abandoned bag. She slung it over her own shoulders and crept around the small shop. 

A pool of blood coming from one of the rooms had her heart racing. She sprinted through the door and immediately felt a wave of relief rush over her. Instead of finding Waverly bound against the metallic bench, she saw a man hunched over it with meat cleaver stuck in his throat. 

If Nicole hadn't seen this time and time again, she'd probably puke. 

"Where are you, Waverly?" 

__

Run. Run, Waverly. 

Her legs ached, her chest frozen and her breathing erratic. 

Just run. 

"I WILL FIND YOU!" A voice screeched from behind her. 

She banged off a few walls before her legs forced her to stop. 'Nicole would know what to do,' she thought to herself. No weapons, no knives, no nothing. 

"COME OUT WAVERLY!" The voice attacked her ears making her raise up to her feet and run once again. 

The cold winters air hit her like a truck, the snow storm only added to Waverly's list of problems. But it was a problem that was also a blessing for it not only slowed the men down, but it also served as a cover of sorts. She couldn't see the men coming for her and they couldn't see her. 

She could make out shapes of the blokes hunting her down, but that's all she could do. She couldn't attack them, she wasn't as strong as Nicole. She had to think about every move strategically. 

The men closed in on her, but still hadn't spotted her. All she could do was climb through the nearest available window and hope and pray no one was inside. 

She hid in one of the back rooms of the building before she heard a click coming from the front. She followed the sound through the storage rooms, through a kitchen and out into the wide restaurant area. 

Tobias stood by the front door with three other men. If Waverly were to throw snow onto his balding head it'll evaporate within seconds. 

"Find her," he snarled at them, "oh I'm going to enjoy it when I get my hands on her."

The large man with a moustache and long dark greasy hair scuffled his feet before replying, "no offence, Tobias, but didn't you already have her?" 

"She killed Peter," Tobias sighed, "I wasn't in the room," he lied, "wasn't his fault, she played dirty." 

"What if we find her friend?" A young looking man piped up, "Billy and Joe found blankets and bits of food inside one of the houses. She must have left, but if she's looking for this girl then she'll be heading straight to us. A fall like the one she's suffered and how badly beat up she was can only work in our favour." 

Tobias grinned sickeningly, "yes," he whispered, "yes, find her. Maybe we can weed Waverly out with her!"

Waverly gasped and threw herself against a metal counter. She froze in terror after it made a loud scraping sound. 

"What was that?" The large man questioned. 

Tobias waved his hand, "it's probably that pesky cat, he likes to hang around the kitchens," he wrenched open the front door, "now, let's get going." 

The four men vacated the restaurant leaving a relief soaked Waverly behind. Finding a knife that lay under a different bench, she slowly crept towards the front door herself. 

Locked. Of course it's locked. Waverly attempted to force the door open. 

"Shit." She muttered and before she had time to even think about another way out a voice sounded from behind her. 

"Hello, Waverly." Tobias came into view. 

Waverly hid the knife behind her back and kept silent. 

"Still not a big talker, eh?" He laughed, "So, now it's just you and me and no way of an escape." His eyes glinted as he manoeuvred around a row of booths so he could be toe to toe with the brunette girl. 

If Waverly was panicking, she wasn't showing it, her back was arched up to raise herself up a few inches and her head was tilted ever so slightly. She was every bit as confident as she knew Willa would be, as she knew Wynonna would be, as she knew any Earp would be. 

"I'm not going to kill you, oh no, no, no," he raised a machete up, "I'm going to do much worse things that will have you begging for me to find mercy and kill you." 

Waverly wasn't one for threats. You'll stop being a whiney bitch and put your money where your mouth is. You don't talk a big game, you just do it. 

"So, my question for you, Waverly, is what you'll do once we capture your friend and do the same to her whilst you watch?" His eyes shined with the evil he was intending. 

Waverly nodded her head, "yeah, that's not going to happen though, is it?" 

Before Tobias could reply Waverly launched past him, slicing the muscle just behind his knee as she did. She hid behind a booth as far away from the door as possible. Tobias screamed in both pain and fury. 

"I'll get you, girlie," he spat, "I'll tear your chest open whilst you watch. I'll put your insides out!" 

His voice came louder and louder the closer he got to Waverly. He stopped just short of her, frantically searched around before kicking a table with his good leg. Sneaking a look from her own hiding place, Waverly caught a glimpse of his back. She slowly crept out and jumped on his back, slicing through his shoulder. 

He tossed her on the floor and before she could fully run away, he thrashed his machete down her back. A narrow line formed just missing her spine. She ran away again. This time hiding at the front of the building, near the windows. 

Tobias knocked over a dozen candles as he stumbled around. The place went up in flames so easily. 

"Come out, girlie," he stammered, "I just want to be friends." 

He regained a bit of composure and limped towards the front of the restaurant, looking under tables as he went. Waverly was ready for him. As he made his way towards the booth she was hiding in she jumped out, hitting him once again with her knife. Surprised by the leap by Waverly, he dropped his machete a few yards away from them. He swung his fist straight into the side of Waverlys head knocking her straight to the floor. 

He fell himself, hitting his head off a nearby table. They both crumpled to the floor, neither moving. 

__

"SHE'S HERE!" A voice shouted over the snow storm. 

Nicole was beginning to really hate this stupid town. How on earth someone spotted her in the middle of this weather, she'll never know. But as she raised her rifle and took out a few of the men, she didn't bother to question it further. 

Her whole body was aching. She was sure she popped a stitch. Waverly didn't do that much of a bad job given she was still young and lived a very sheltered life prior to getting infected. 

Her legs gave way a few times and she found herself stumbling around in the snow more often than not. 

A shot ran straight passed her face and her thoughts of the pain her body was currently going through left her mind. Her focus was on finding Waverly. She'd come back to herself when Waverly was okay. 

After taking out a few more men, Nicole stumbled on. The snow was a bitch at the best of times, but trying to climb up hill at breakneck speed, it was being an asshole. 

She rounded a few corners before she spotted a building a few blocks away currently engulfed in flames with black smoke floating above it. 

"Fuck," Nicole chocked out, "Waverly!"

__

Waverly forced her eyes open. She felt the blood cascading from the punch Tobias had inflicted upon her head only moments ago. Turning herself onto her stomach, she lifted herself onto her knees just in time to see Tobias do the same. 

They both looked at the machete just inches away from Waverly's arms and then back at each other. 

"Oh no you don't, girlie." Tobias snapped at her. 

At the same time, Waverly launched herself at the machete and Tobias launched himself at Waverly. Tobias won. 

Turning the girl over so her back smacked against the cold sting of the floor, he laughed sickeningly. Waverly tried to reach the machete, but it was just out of her grasp. 

Tobias placed both his hands around Waverly's neck and squeezed. She kept trying to reach the weapon. Just a little bit more...

He applied more and more pressure and Waverly could feel the last bits of oxygen leaving her system as her eyes began to blotch. 

Nearly got it. 

He cackled at the sight of her squirming, but Waverly had the last laugh. 

She grabbed onto the machete and smacked Tobias on the head with it. He fell off Waverly and slumped to the side. Waverly jumped on him and hit him over and over and over again in the head with the sharpened weapon. 

All her fear, all her anger and all her emotions were pouring out of her as she thrashed him through his now split open head. She screamed as she kept pelting him. 

A soft and familiar set of arms grabbed her and pulled her off off Tobias' now unrecognisable body. 

Waverly began to hit the owner of the arms with her eyes closed, tears spilled over her cheeks. 

"Waverly, it's okay, it's me," Nicole soothed making Waverly stop immediately, "it's over, he can't hurt you anymore." Nicole grabbed both sides of Waverly's face and forced her to look at her. 

"I thought you were going to die." Waverly choked out. 

Nicole held on tight to the smaller girl, "I'd never leave you, Waverly, even at deaths door." She whispered. 

They stayed like that for a few seconds before Nicole remembered the place was on fire. 

"We have to go," Nicole stood up, pulling Waverly with her, "now!"

__

After leaving that shit hole of a town, Nicole and Waverly sought refuge in a house a few miles down the road. 

"You were really brave." Nicole wrapped a few blankets around Waverlys shoulders. 

"Me?" She laughed, "what about you? Fighting off an army on your own whilst still being in a shit ton of pain." 

"I've done it before." Nicole shrugged, snuggling herself next to Waverly as they sought warmth. 

The smaller girl scoffed slightly and leaned into Nicole's embrace. "How long until we get to Salt Lake?" She asked. 

"I don't know, couple of months." Nicole sighed and wrapped her arms around Waverly's waist. 

"Okay," Waverly smiled, "so I can enjoy you for a few more months."

"Waverly, you can enjoy me for as long as you want." It was meant to sound sincere, it really was, but by the mischievous glint in Waverly's eyes meant it sounded a lot less sincere and a lot more seductive. 

"Oh, don't you worry, I plan to." The smaller girl winked at the taller one. 

She leaned in rather slowly and placed the softest kiss upon Nicole's lips. Within seconds it began to heat up and before she knew it, Waverly was on her back with both legs wrapped around the redhead's waist. 

Nicole wasted no time in tearing apart each and every item Waverly insisted on wearing. The brunette returned the favour with more and more hunger as the heat rose between the two girls. 

Nicole trailed hungry kisses down Waverly's neck stopping every now and again to pay a particular spot more attention as it got more of a reaction from the quivering girl beneath her. 

A roll of the hips indicated to Nicole that Waverly was ready to vent her frustrations. She was ready for forget her name for a while. She was ready to forget the fact that she was infected. At this moment, she just wanted to be Nicole's. 

__

Winter turned into spring and spring into summer. It had been a full year since Nicole and Xavier agreed to take Waverly and Wynonna off of Willa's hands and to the Fireflies. 

Nicole had become so attached to Waverly and visa versa that when they finally reached Salt Lake City, they were almost disappointed. As soon as they saw the welcoming sign they both fell silent. As if neither really believed that they were there. 

They walked through the abandoned streets in silence. Both pondering thoughts of 'what if we go back now?' 

Waverly was first to break the silence, spotting a billboard advertising a film that was 'coming soon', "a werewolf falls in love with a girl? Did people generally watch this crap?" 

Nicole chuckled, "you know, my sister used to read these books about a vampire that fell in love with this girl and then a werewolf fell in love with her," she thought back, "and then the werewolf fell in love with the girl and vampires baby and it got weird." 

"Wow, sounds freaky." 

"Yeah," They continued on, "I had these books that my parents found, it was about three school kids that went to a magical school and had to fight evil wizards," her face broke out in a huge grin, "I read six books about it, but never read the last one."

Waverly squealed, "I read them too! But I read the last one, I'm sure we could find it somewhere?" 

Nicole shook her head, "no, we can't keep postponing this, Wave." 

The brunette girl scuffed her feet, "I suppose." She grumbled. 

They continued the walk in silence again. Neither thinking about anything other than the dropping off of Waverly and the leaving of Nicole. 

A shout brought both girls from their thoughts. Nicole pulled Waverly behind a car. They risked a look out from their hiding place to spot three faces grinning broadly at them and running in their direction. 

"Waverly!"

"Nicole!"

"Xavier!" Nicole screamed launching herself at him. 

"Wynonna!" Waverly felt the tears sting her eyes at the sight of her sister. 

"And Doc!" Doc shouted, running to a lamp post and hugging it wildly. 

After a few minutes of intense hugging all five broke apart. 

"Wait," Waverly stopped, her eyes as wide as saucers, "what is that?" She pointed at Wynonna. 

"Oh, shit, yeah," Wynonna stumbled over her words, "I think I might be pregnant."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had to reunite them. It was bound to happen. 
> 
> But one of the five have gotta go.
> 
> As always comments and kudos are greatly appreciated and I really do tear up at some comments. Ya'll are amazing! 
> 
> Also, to anyone who's played the game/read up on it and know the ending, would you like an alternative ending or do you want the same one? I'm conflicted. To anyone not knowing the ending, do not spoil for yourself just incase I keep the same ending!


	11. We Don't Have To Do This.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peace and serenity only comes in small packages. You have to seize the moment. 
> 
> We can't back out now, Nicole, we've come too far.

"You think you might be pregnant?" Waverly asked sceptically, "Wynonna you're about ready to pop, there could be more than one in there!"

Wynonna gasped, "don't say that!" She smacked her sisters arm, "I don't think I could handle one let alone two."

"How? Who? When?" 

Xavier looked sheepish, it didn't go unnoticed by Nicole. 

"Congratulations," she clapped him on the back, "Xavier Dolls, world renowned smuggler and now father."

Waverly gaped open mouthed, her gaze shifting from her sister then to the apparent father of her unborn niece or nephew then back to her sister. 

Silence fell upon the five, two were still processing the pregnancy whilst another two gazed at each other, throwing childish grins at one another. The odd one out spoke, "well, I do believe this is the opportune moment to congratulate ones sister and their partner on their jubilant news." Doc tipped his hat. 

"Wynonna..." Waverly trailed off, reaching out for her sisters hand she squeezed it and a broad smile over took her features, "have you considered names?" 

The two sisters lead the way to the hospital, yammering on about baby names and whether or not Wynonna's having twins whilst the other three walked behind them, close enough to be ready if something or someone attacks, but back enough that they could have their own conversation. 

"How did you find us?" Nicole asked. 

Xavier wrapped an arm around the ginger girls shoulders, "well, we got caught in the crossfire in Boston, ended up diverting to Philadelphia. That was horrendous, infected had taken over completely. Then we went to Purgatory like you said and Chrissy was there. She said you both left a few weeks prior and she told us where you were going. So we went to Sanctuary with Chrissy. Bobo nearly killed us but when he finally saw me he actually jumped down from the fence and tackled me in a Bobo hug," Xavier chuckled, all Nicole got from Bobo was a dirty look and a few snarls, "so, Chrissy stayed and Doc told us you were heading to the University in Colorado so we followed you. Nice work, by the way, we could tell you weren't there by the trail of bodies you left behind." Xavier winked. 

"No," Nicole shook her head. "I fell from a few stories up, got impaled," she lifted up her shirt slightly to show Xavier her still not fully healed scar, Xavier winced, "I know, right? Gross. But she stepped up," she pointed at Waverly, "took them all out and somehow dragged my dying ass into an abandoned house in a shit hole of a town and by a strange miracle she kept me alive."

"The Earp sisters are extraordinary." Doc chimed in with a chuckle. 

"Yeah, they are." Both Nicole and Xavier sighed at the same time, lovingly gazing at their own beloved Earp before catching each other and looking away embarrassed. 

"Anyway," Xavier continued, "so we searched the rooms and found that recording device that told us to come here. Then we searched the towns around the university, including the one I know you two were in, of which half of it was burned down by the time we got there," Xavier squeezed Nicole's shoulder, "and then I think we were just a day behind you."

Nicole nodded her head and stared down at her feet, "What are you going to do, Xav?"

"What do you mean?"

"With Wynonna? Are you staying here with her or is she leaving with you?"

Xavier took his arm back from Nicole's shoulders, "it's complicated, we haven't discussed it. Not really. What will you do?"

"I'm staying with Waverly for as long as she wants me to."

__

Salt Lake City, just like every other major city they've all come up against, had experienced the bombs that turned out to be a failed attempt by the U.S. Government to eradicate the infected. Some buildings withstood the explosions and some were completely destroyed. Some had fallen and slumped against others. 

The hospital was in the heart of the action. Every major road, train station and bus route lead to Saint Mary's leaving their quest to find it a heck of a lot easier considering signs were pointing out its location. Roads were still closed due to the army segregating parts of the city with huge metal gates, making the five go through buildings to find their prime location. 

They entered a small station of sorts, they were unsure whether it was train or bus because the only part that was still standing was the entrance and the floors above it. 

Waverly snuck away from the group and sat on a nearby bench. She placed her hands ever so gently over her face. Nicole spotted her, as she tended to do whenever the smaller girl decided to move away from her eye sight. 

"Hey." Nicole smiled softly before settling down next to the brunette. 

"Hey," Waverly whispered back, "it's nearly over," she chuckled sadly, "your job is nearly complete." 

Nicole rubbed her back soothingly, "it's not over yet, we still have to get there," then added once she never received any reply from Waverly, "listen, Wave, I'm not leaving you here, I'm staying with you." 

Waverly snapped her head up and looked straight at the redhead, her eyes full of hope and longing, "really?" 

"Yes. Waverly, I'm not leaving you to face this alone."

Instead of a reply, Waverly threw her arms around Nicole's shoulders and all but jumped on top of her, "Nicole... I... Thank you." 

Without a single care that her sister was mere yards from where they were, Waverly pressed their lips together in an embrace that took away the fear, the hurt and the uncertainty and instead, it just melted everything away until the world consisted of two things, Waverly and Nicole. 

A skilfully thrown shoe ended their embrace, hitting Nicole cleanly on one side of her face. 

"Hey, that's my little sister," Wynonna stomped over to retrieve her shoe, "don't kop off with her right in front of me, have some manners." 

As fearful and terrifying as Wynonna tried to be, it was taken away completely when she attempted to pick her shoe back up off the ground. Having a baby bump as big as the one she currently had made it a mission of its own to bend down and pick it up. 

After five minutes of seeing her sister struggle, Waverly pushed her gently onto the bench she previously occupied, kneeled down and placed Wynonna's shoe back on, "don't hurt Nicole, Wyn, I love her." She whispered into her sisters ear, blushing slightly at her confession. 

Nicole had quietly tiptoed over to Xavier when Wynonna was struggling to pick up her shoe, "we could get up there." She pointed to a ledge that had once had a staircase leading to it which was now a tiny pile of rubble. 

"We could," he pointed at the four that do not currently have a huge baby bump nestled into their bellies, "she couldn't." His gaze rested on Wynonna. 

"There's a ladder," Waverly skipped over to them, "I can see it, boost me up and I'll get it." 

Xavier and Wynonna looked alarmed at the suggestion but Nicole nodded her head and helped the youngest Earp up. They waited whilst Waverly scanned the area, just in case a Walker or Clicker showed up, before heading over to the ladder. She picked it up, heaved it to the four currently waiting for her before a noise snapped her head round. 

"No fucking way." She whispered, staring off into the distance. She tossed the ladder down without looking where it was going to land and sprinted off in the direction of the noise. 

"Waverly!" Both Nicole and Wynonna shouted. Xavier grabbed onto the ladder and quickly placed it on the wall before Nicole pushed passed him and ascended them herself. 

She didn't wait for the others to climb, instead she ran off in search of Waverly. She wasn't in the corridor, she must have gone up the stairs. Nicole ran up one flight of stairs and nearly ran straight into the back of a awestruck Waverly. 

"What are you doing?" Nicole hissed, "why would you run off like that?" 

Instead of replying, Waverly pointed. A large majestic creature that had taken Waverly's curiosity was currently chewing it's way through all sorts of plants that had grown on the side of the building they were in. Nicole smiled down at the smaller girl before cautiously walking over to the creature. 

"A giraffe." Waverly whispered, "Don't scare them." 

"I won't." Nicole hushed back. As she slowly crept over as to not scare the animal, the other three had made their way to their location. Xavier stopped Wynonna and Doc from going any further. 

Waverly crept behind Nicole, mirroring her every footstep. The redhead reached out a hand and gently stroked the giraffes cheek. 

"Come here," Nicole held out her other hand for Waverly to grasp, "stroke it." 

Waverly hesitated at first before she allowed herself to touch it. It was soft and so friendly. Waverly wasn't allowed many moments in her life to find peace, but in this moment, standing next to Nicole, having her sister alive and with her and the sheer serenity that had instilled itself onto the giraffes face made everything stop. Suddenly she didn't feel like a lamb off on its way to slaughter. She felt love, happiness and harmony. 

Nicole sensed her feelings and whispered to her, "we don't have to do this, you know." She tried to not sound desperate. 

It was as though the peace she felt had crumpled and suddenly she remembered who she was. What she was, "what?"

"This, we could go back," Nicole wouldn't let go of Waverly's hand, "we could leave with Doc, Xavier and Wynonna."

"But, all this, everything we've done," Waverly sighed, "everything I've done, it can't be for nothing, right?" 

It seemed to Nicole like she needed the question answered, like she needed confirmation that what she has done to survive had meaning. Just surviving simply wasn't a good enough reason to hurt and kill people, she needed an excuse and possibly finding out a cure from her was the excuse she so desired. Nicole could live with the thought of killing to not be killed herself, but Waverly was more pure of heart. She killed the minority to save the majority. 

Nicole nodded her head, "yeah."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yikes. Incredibly small chapter. I do apologise but doing assignments and then working ungodly hours after does strange things to a person. 
> 
> But if you want a preview for the next chapter which will hopefully come soon, then: people gun' die. 
> 
> Also, shout out to HaughtFanGirl for the medical Java of which I'd have no idea of prior to your comment! 
> 
> Comments are loved and appreciated. Till next time, my lovelies.


	12. She's Not Breathing.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To survive, one needs to be quick. One needs to be strong. One needs to rely on oneself only. If you grow attached, you may just lose your own life as well as theirs. 
> 
> If either die, that'll break you. If you get trapped before you get to the hospital, there's no going back. Keep going. Keep fighting. Waverly needs you, Nicole. Keep fighting for her.

The sun bore down on all five of them as they searched for some sort of way through to the hospital. They passed through and under all sorts in order to get to Saint Mary's. Currently the only way was up. Up and over the twenty foot fences. Nicole reckons she could climb it, but Wynonna scoffed at the implication that she could. 

Waverly seemed in a war of her own in her head. Nicole suggesting they could just leave had opened up conflicting thoughts. Could she just leave? Would Wynonna forgive her if she was just to abandon the quest for the cure? Was there even a cure? Or was she going in to sudden death? 

As if reading Waverly's thoughts, Wynonna placed a comforting hand in her sisters, giving it a reassuring squeeze and holding the smaller girl close. 

Nicole watched the exchange from over her shoulder. No wanting to risk anything, she lead the pack with Xavier, Doc took the rear. She sighed to herself, even if she does indeed lose Waverly, at least she still had Xavier, even if he was a bit preoccupied with the inevitable arrival of his new born. 

Losing Waverly. Losing her would break the redhead, and she knew it. One can only bend so much before one snaps completely. Nicole was just one death away from a breakdown. She was emotionally and physically drained. Due to everything that's happened in her life, she has trouble processing death, instead of coming to terms with her loss, she instead ignores it, forcing all her emotions to pile up. If Waverly was to die, Nicole would too. 

"Through here." Xavier snapped all the girls out of their thoughts. Xavier pointed out a large tunnel with cars and trucks scattered throughout the entrance. 

"Can you climb some of these?" Nicole asked the middle Earp sibling. 

"I'm not disabled, I can climb a few bits with some help." Wynonna rolled her eyes at her sisters girlfriend before allowing Xavier to help her up and over a large truck. "Uh, guys, we'd best be as quiet as possible unless we want to be mauled to death." Wynonna hushed down to the other four. 

Being mauled was an underrated term Wynonna used, they'd have been completely torn apart if they were to take the wrong step. Infected infested around a quarter of the overall tunnel. Trucks had blocked them into one section, but the only way to the hospital was through the hoards of Infected. Clickers, Walkers and Bloaters - Infected that's enlarged dramatically due to its intake of spores - roamed the gravel floor. 

The Walkers couldn't see them, when there weren't any humans to feast on, they tended to stay stationary, hands ripping their faces to shreds. Clickers paced around, occasionally thrashing their arms and screeching slightly. The Bloaters also remained stationary. Thing with Bloaters is that they tend to toss poisonous goo from their stomachs straight at anyone or anything they could feast upon. The poison would slow one down dramatically and give the Bloater enough time to run over to its prey. 

Xavier scanned the whole area, trying to find a safe passage for Wynonna. No luck. They had to roam the lions den and hope the way out was easier than the way in. 

Nicole crept through with Waverly right by her side. Silently killing a few Walkers as they roamed. Xavier and Wynonna catiously tiptoed behind them whilst Doc kept an eye the pregnant Earp. 

Luck was on their side as they made it to the only barrier between the Infected and the safe zone. A white lorry was trapped between the walls of the tunnel. They just had to climb it. Xavier and Doc boosted the three girls up before Doc helped Xavier up himself. 

A screech from behind them startled them, a Walker had spotted them. As soon as the noise rang round the halls of the tunnel, all Infected, Bloaters included, made a run at them. 

Xavier leaned down as fast as he could to help Doc up, Nicole also bending down and extending a hand for Doc to take. They pulled him up, but something else pulled him down. Waverly screamed. 

Nicole glanced down in time to see a Clicker chomping down on Doc's calf and a Walker grabbing at his waist. Doc was gone for. 

"Kill me." He cried at the others. "Please." He whispered. Blood began to trickle from his mouth as his body became a buffet for the Infected. 

Xavier pulled the tigger, but before he did he grabbed the back of Doc's neck and placed their foreheads together. Doc's body fell lifeless to the floor as the Infected piled on top of him. 

"Let's... Let's keep going." Nicole stuttered. 

The other three nodded in agreement before jumping down from the truck and proceeding down the tunnel. Cars and trucks floated in water that had flooded the remains of the tunnel. 

"Waverly-" Wynonna started. 

"Can't swim." Nicole finished, "Yeah, trust me, I know." 

"Just try not to fall in the water." Xavier shrugged, completely shaken by Doc's death. 

Waverly nodded and stood close to Nicole, "I'll be fine, lets go." Her voice broke slightly. 

They jumped from car to car, the only scare came from Xavier. His foot got caught in the windscreen of a car and sliced open his leg slightly. The road ahead was blocked again, meaning the four had to find another way around. Xavier broke down a door leading to a maintenance hallway and lead the four down it. 

After passing a few doors, they finally stopped at the last one down the hall, Xavier wrenching it open and cautiously scanning the newly discovered area. No Infected, but more water. The water seemed to be moving a heck of a lot more aggressively than the water before. 

"We'll have to take more caution." Nicole held onto Waverly as they climbed on top of a Jeep. "Watch where you step and only do two to a car."

She steadied herself and jumped onto the top of a nearby Rover, she turned to grab the youngest Earp as she flung herself forward and into the ginger girls arms. 

They jumped from car to car to truck to car before Waverly lead the way. She hopped down onto a bus that had been tipped onto its side. The glass of the windows smashed as she landed, but the bus never budged. Nicole went next, but as she landed, she slipped backwards and fell straight through the glass. A small piece had settled itself in the side of Nicole's head, making blood trickle down her forehead. 

Before she could do anything, the bus began to jerk in the direction the water was flowing to. 

"RUN!" Waverly screamed. 

Nicole was barely able to get to her feet before the bus moved with her still inside it. It whacked off nearly every car that came in its path before Waverly threw herself onto it. Nicole had reached the doors of the bus just as Waverly attempted to wrench them open. 

"Waverly, get off!" Nicole yelled, "You'll get hurt! Jump to safety!" 

But it was too late, Waverly was thrown off the bus just as it started to topple. It's rolled and rolled and rolled throughout the flooded tunnel before coming to a sudden stop. 

Nicole touched her head. Another wound had opened and was pouring freely. She didn't have time to mess around, instead she smashed through one of the windows and jumped into the water. The floor of the tunnel was none existent. Like nearly everything else, it had fallen in making the water at least twenty foot deep. 

Waverly was unconscious and under the water. Drifting up and down slightly as the water pressure eased up. Nicole swam as fast as her arms and legs allowed to grab the youngest Earp before she drowned. 

She pulled the other girl out of the water and onto the nearest surface she could find. She hadn't noticed that when they surfaced they had found the exit. She hadn't noticed Xavier and Wynonna running to them. She hadn't noticed the people in armour with their hands clasped onto AK-47's. She hadn't even noticed when they shot Xavier. 

All that went through her mind was the unconscious girl lying in front of her. She wasn't breathing. 

"Get up!" A harsh voice approached her. 

"She's not breathing." Nicole attempted mouth to mouth resuscitation. It wasn't working. 

"I said get up." The voice was louder this time, but Nicole didn't care. 

Nicole placed her hands together and began pumping over Waverly's heart, "Don't do this to me." She whispered. 

"Is she deaf?" The voice grew irritated. 

"She's not breathing!" Nicole shouted out. 

The owner of the voice had had enough of Nicole's disobedience. They stalked over to her and hit her as hard as they could in her face, knocking her out. 

The last thing she heard was the screaming from a distressed Wynonna. 

"Waverly! Dolls!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, short chapter again, but it's getting to the end! 
> 
> RIP Doc. You went out a hero. 
> 
> As for Xavier..... Maybe....? And you know what stress does to a pregnant woman. Waverly and Nicole are out cold, but Waverly isn't breathing. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone still plowing through this journey! Ya'll are the best. The only email I'm excited to see!


	13. I'm In Charge.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How much do you trust Willa Earp, Nicole? 
> 
> A new arrival causes problems for the Earp family.

Nicole awoke tied to a hospital bed mere hours after being knocked out. One thing was on her mind the moment she came round. 

Waverly. 

"Waverly." She mumbled groggily. She tried to move her arms, but they were bound tightly to either ends of the bed. 

"She's okay." A strong voice infiltrated her ear drums. 

Nicole hoisted her head as far up as she possibly could considering her current situation. Willa Earp was seated directly opposite to the redhead, legs crossed and arms draped casually on each arm rest. 

"Untie me." Nicole spat. 

Willa winced slightly at the amount of venom in the younger girls voice, but had expected as much, "Not until I know you're not a threat."

Nicole chuckled, "What? Bringing your little sister here, risking my life in the meantime, isn't enough for you?" 

"Not me." Willa stood, "Everyone else." She walked over to Nicole's bedside, "They know the stories about you, how you kill in cold blood. Not only infected but everyone else too. They're just scared you'll hunt Waverly down, taking as many lives as you please." 

"I kill to survive." Nicole kept her cool and calm composure, "I only kill those who try to kill me." 

"I'll untie you, but know this, Haught." Willa lurched forward and grabbed a chunk of Nicole's shirt, "You try anything and I'll switch off every machine currently keeping your pal Xavier alive." 

Nicole nodded. Xavier... She felt the guilt attack every nerve ending in her body for her friend. In the mist of everything that happened with Waverly, she hadn't even spared a thought for her oldest friend. 

"Good girl." Willa began to loosen the rope that bound Nicole to the bed, "Now, some ground rules. One, no guns - you kill anyone and we'll kill Xavier. Two, you can see Xavier when the doctors are finished taking one of his kidneys out - before you go mad, that's where the bullet hit. Three, you go along with anything Waverly wants - you're not her keeper, you don't make her decisions for her no matter how much you love her. And four, I'm in charge 'round here." 

Once the ties were gone, Nicole sat up and rubbed her wrists. Willa had extended a hand to help her off the bed, but Nicole swatted it away and helped herself off it instead. 

Rubbing her back slightly, she looked passed Willa and spotted a mirror towards the back of the room. Pushing past Willa, Nicole stumbled slightly as she reached it. She inspected herself in its reflection. The Fireflies had stitched up the wounds on her head, but couldn't magically erase the boot print that was currently on the side of her face. 

"Check your stomach." Willa called over. 

Nicole lifted up her shirt to reveal the wound she had received in the University. The Fireflies had taken out Waverly's amateur stitching and replaced it with near perfect stitches instead. She threw a grateful glance at the eldest Earp sibling before exiting the room. 

"Where is she?" Nicole's demeanour changed from venomous to gentle, if she demanded to see the brunette then Willa could refuse, she couldn't risk that. 

"She's okay, she's having a few blood tests and full body scans at the moment." Willa grabbed onto Nicole's elbow, "Come, sit with Wynonna."

Realisation once again smacked Nicole in the face, "How is she? Is the baby okay?"

"Wynonna is fine, just come." Willa dragged the redhead away. 

They walked in silence, most of the hallways and rooms were blackened due to the current time of day and the distinct lack of power. Three people floated into Nicole's mind and all she could think of was losing them all. She hadn't known Wynonna long, but by the way Waverly spoke of her, she felt like a part of Nicole's small family. 

Wynonna was spread on all fours on top of her hospital bed. Her hands were clawing at her bed sheets and her toes were curled up. Occasionally a deep and throaty yell erupted from her mouth. 

"You said she was okay!" Nicole pushed Willa from her and ran to Wynonna's bedside, "Wynonna, breathe, keep breathing." She soothed. 

"She is." Willa crossed her arms, "she's just in labour." 

"Just in labour!" Wynonna spat, a pained laugh followed, "Yeah, and Dolls just got shot! He's okay too!" She yelled. 

Willa rolled her eyes, "Don't be so dramatic." She quickly ducked as Wynonna threw a glass vase at her sister, "I'll just go and see how Xavier is doing." 

Wynonna stayed on all fours, breathing heavily and hitting the mattress with her fist. Nicole sat beside her. She hadn't a clue what to do. In all the things she's seen in her life, she's never experienced labour. Whether it be seeing it or being in it herself, it's never happened to her. 

The middle Earp could tell how useless her sisters girlfriend was going to be, but with the current choices of company, she couldn't be picky. 

"Wynonna." Nicole stood up, "How's it going...?" She asked awkwardly. 

"Oh, Haught, shut up and hold my hand." Wynonna grumbled as another wave of pain washed through her. 

Nicole did as she was told and extended her right hand to Wynonna, who grabbed it and squeezed it as though it was nothing. Nicole yelped in pain, but instead of taking her hand back, she stiffened her lip and took the crushing force. 

"It's coming, I can feel it!" Wynonna shouted as loud as she could and squeezed Nicole's hand harder. 

"Lie on your back-"

"Now's not the time to proposition me, Haught!" Wynonna laughed slightly through gritted teeth. 

"Cute." Nicole took back her throbbing hand and helped the Earp onto her back, "Just stay there and I'll shout for someone."

Before she got as far as the door, Wynonna screamed at her, "Don't you dare leave me, you asshole! You have to stay with me!" Then added as soon as Nicole turned, eyes wide and pleading, "Please?" 

"Okay." She whispered and sat back beside the dark haired girl. 

Willa had made her way back to the room in time to see the two girls panicking over the labour. Unluckily for them, Willa also hadn't a clue of what to do. 

"What do we do?" She asked Nicole. 

"How should I know? I've never had a kid before!" 

"Maybe...." She grabbed onto her sisters legs, "Keep your legs closed?"

"It's a bit late for that! She should have done that nine months ago!" 

"No, just keep your legs closed until the doctor is available." 

Wynonna felt another surge of bone crushing pain and yelled out, "it's coming, I can feel it! They don't want to wait!" 

"Check to see if it's heads crowning." Willa instructed to Nicole. 

The redhead looked completely offended at the suggestion, "You check! You're her sister!"

"That just makes it ten times worse." 

"Have you got a coin?"

"Actually I do, why?"

"Heads."

Willa rolled her eyes, "Fine, tails." 

The eldest Earp left the room for a few seconds and came back, coin in hand. She tossed the coin in the air, much to the annoyance of the current pregnant woman in the bed withering in pain. 

"Ha, I won." Willa grinned smugly. 

Nicole whined, "Best two out of three?"

Wynonna growled, "HAUGHT, GET OVER HERE AND HELP ME!" 

As Nicole attempted to help her possible new family member, Willa snuck from the room in order to find someone to help. Nicole spotted her leave and called after her. 

"Call a doctor! Call a midwife! Call Doctor Who!" 

"Doctor Who?" Willa asked. 

"Oh, its fabulous, its a book I re-" 

"GET SOMEONE!" 

__

After another hour of agonising labour, Wynonna had finally delivered her and Xavier's newborn baby girl. Not wanting to name her without her father in the room, she went nameless for a while. Xavier was still unconscious but out of surgery. Nicole spent a few minutes by his bedside before Wynonna had sent someone to get her. 

"What's up?" Nicole asked softly. 

"I want Waverly, but they won't get her." She replied, tiredness had settled in. 

"So you've settled for me instead?" Nicole smiled. 

"Yeah, you're my silver medal." She winked. 

Nicole sat beside the dark haired Earp and held her hand softly. The pressure from Wynonna's grip was considerably less rough than the last time they held hands. 

"I think I've peed myself." Wynonna laughed groggily. 

Nicole grinned at her and helped lift her slightly to see what was underneath her. She gasped. 

"Shit." She whispered, "Shit. Shit. Shit." 

She pelted from the room, shouting for a doctor as loudly as she could before running back and reassuring Wynonna that she was okay. Except before she had the chance, Wynonna was shaking uncontrollably and convulsing off the bed in a ferocious fit. 

A few Fireflies helped her off the bed and straight into surgery. Leaving behind a shaken Nicole and a blood soaked mattress. The only thing she heard before Wynonna was taken away was, "Quick, she's haemorrhaging!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no medical knowledge whatsoever, I am, however going off Call The Midwife episodes. I'd also be as useful as Nicole if it came to labour! 
> 
> Short chapters may be the theme toward the end *dont be mad* 
> 
> As always, leave a comment, say what you like or what you think is terrible, I adore feedback. And you are all amazing! Love y'all!


	14. Floor 5.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waverly wakes up and Willa makes a deal with Nicole. 
> 
> When everyone is against you, you have to stand tall. Even when the odds are against you, you have to break them. You're smart, calm and collected. You can beat them, Haught.

"Someone restrain her!" A voice barked. 

Waverly thrashed her arms, hitting anyone and anything that was within touching distance. The last thing she could remember was water. A heck of a lot of water. Then, nothing. Waking up to four people standing over her with needles did not help her anxiety in the slightest. Her fists collided with at least two noses, breaking one of them and potentially fracturing her own knuckles. 

Five more people burst into the room, heavily armed and heavily armoured. If she wasn't too busy trying to break free, Waverly would have been flattered that they needed nine people to restrain her. 

After successfully strapping the small girl to a hospital bed, four of the five guards vacated the room, leaving one behind just in case. One of the original four who were watching over her when she was unconscious held their hand over their face. Blood poured out of their nose and onto the floor. 

"Jesse, get out of here and patch yourself up." The tallest person their had hushed to her dark skinned companion. Jesse nodded before stumbling out. 

"Waverly Earp," a grey haired woman approached the brunette, "You have clearly spent a lot of time in the wild, as it were."

Waverly glared at her. She hoped that she looked as intense as she felt, Nicole would usually laugh and compare her to a rather cute puppy dog she had once seen. 

"Your companion, Nicole Haught, is it?" She asked, but without waiting for an answer she continued, "She's okay, slight concussion, but soon she will be allowed to leave."

"What do you mean leave?" Waverly gasped out, her intensity leaving and terror suddenly creeping into her voice. 

The woman smiled, "Well, we've treated her and she's ready to leave soon."

"She can't leave."

"Why not? I don't understand, Willa said you'd love to know that she was okay."

Waverly fought against her restraints causing them to dig deep into the skin around her wrists, "I want to see her, I want to see Wynonna too!" 

The looks the doctors exchange didn't go unnoticed by the brunette, in fact it had driven Waverly to be more aggressive in her attempts to break free. 

"Miss Earp, if you calm down I will explain what has happened." 

__

"Right, Haught, lets go." Willa returned hours later with a rug sack over one shoulder. She tossed it at Nicole who ignored it as it fell at her feet. 

"Where?" She muttered in between her fingers. 

Willa stomped over to the redhead and ripped her hands from her face and forced the younger girl to look at her, "If you want to stay here with Waverly then you're going to have to pull your weight." 

"Pull my weight?" Nicole stood up abruptly, knocking Willa slightly as she towered over the Earp, "I'm sorry, was bringing your sister halfway across the country not good enough for you?" 

"No." Willa set her jaw, "Bringing Waverly here was a straight swap for those weapons that are waiting for you in Boston. The deal was bring her to the Fireflies and they're yours, not bring her here and wait with her whilst consuming our rations and drinking the clean water we struggled to obtain." 

Exhaustion had overtaken Nicole's normally calm persona, she exploded, "No, the deal was to take her across the city, but I brought her to fucking Salt Lake City. I nearly died in Colorado, she was nearly eaten in Colorado, I sacrificed one of my friends for her, Doc died for her protection. Xavier protected your other sister and you shot him for it! I don't even know if he's still alive!"

"Xavier Dolls could well have killed my sister. Getting her pregnant was a death sentence in its own out here-"

"No, you don't get to interrupt." Nicole wagged her hand in front of Willa's face, "We both sacrificed a heck of a lot for them two girls, and now I'm being told that it's not enough? You know there's no cure that can be obtained without killing Waverly, right?"

Willa seemed to visibly calm herself down, she walked to the bed Wynonna was previously lay upon. "There are two ways we can abstract the cure from her. We can try and recreate whatever it is in her blood that's stopping the virus from turning her or we can cut out the lump we found on her brain that's sending down whatever is in her blood."

"You're going to kill her." Nicole breathed out, realisation hitting her like a wall. She knew the only outcome was Waverly's death, but hearing it from Willa made it so much more real.

Willa sighed, "Its the last resor-"

"Its not the last result! Its Plan B! Its the second thing you're going to try! How long will you attempt the blood thing before you kill your little sister?"

"Waverly knows the sacrifice that comes with being immune. She wants this, Haught. Don't take this away from her."

Nicole could feel the walls closing in on her. Her heart began to constrict and expand, making her breaths ragged and desperate. A wave of anger filled her head and a mist of red smoke filled her eyes. She threw her fist into the nearest breakable object to relieve the pressure she felt. The smashing of a window lifted the red mist and when Nicole's breathing normalised she inspected her fist. Blood poured from her knuckles, but she wasn't interested. 

"I want to see Waverly." She growled. 

"No, but I can take you to Xavier." 

Xavier. Is he...? "Is he awake?" Nicole rushed out. 

"I don't know, but he's out of surgery." Willa shrugged. She strolled out of the room motioning for Nicole to join her. 

They walked through and down so many floors before stopping. Willa reached into her pant pocket and pulled out a small knife. Nicole was ready for her. She grabbed onto the older sisters arms and twisted them painfully behind her back. 

"What are you doing?" Willa angrily whispered to the redhead. 

"Stopping you before you do something stupid." Nicole growled into the eldest Earp's ear. 

Willa rolled her eyes, "I'm not going to use it on you, this is FOR you. To use it on the infected in here." 

"No, you said we were going to see Xavier, not that we had to clear out a whole floor of infected." Nicole released Willa. 

The brunette rubbed her arms, "I want you to clear this out, you're the only one that can without getting infected. You do this and I'll take you to Xavier." She held out the knife and a gas mask to the taller girl who took it with a glare and pushed the Earp out the way of the door. 

Nicole pushed the door open as slowly as she could before crouching down as close to the floor as she possibly could. Quickly she pulled the mask over her face as the room was filled with Spores. Her breathing became slow and silent as she quickly yet quietly manoeuvred around the creepy hospital hall. Darkness swarmed the rooms, the only source of light came from the cracks in the door she had previously just came from. 

She could hear the Clickers moving from room to room. The Walkers moaned in the corners of the halls. Nicole knew the Clickers outnumbered the Walkers, the Walkers would have been the Fireflies that attempted to clear out the hall. Hopefully they managed to take at least a few out before being infected. 

She crept along the walls as to avoid detection before jamming the rusty blade she held in her hand through the soft skull of a Clicker and helped it silently fall to the floor. After disposing of a few more Clickers and one Walker, the blade began to bend and break, tiny shards at a time. 

"Shit." Nicole whispered after taking down another Walker and losing nearly half the blade inside the infected's skull. 

A loud banging noise from the other side of the door Nicole had just came out of startled the infected into sprinting towards the door. Nicole hid behind the reception desk. The footsteps grew louder and more frequent as the hall was completely filled with the thrashing bodies of the infected. They began screaming. The noises were horrific and extremely loud. 

They bombarded the door, Nicole was sure it would give way easily under the pressure of what seemed to be at least thirty infected. But it didn't. In fact, Nicole didn't even hear it creak. She wondered whether or not Willa had blocked it from the other side in a desperate attempt to kill her. Willa would probably tell the other two Earps and Xavier that Nicole had volunteered to rid the place of infected and lost her life in the process. They'd probably believe it. 

As quietly as she could, Nicole reached around the small cubical she was currently hiding in. She was desperate to find something hard or sharp, or both. Instead she found nothing. 

"Shit." She whispered again. She risked a look over the desk to inspect the halls. The infected had their back towards her and were making enough noise that she could easily slip around unnoticed. She spotted a staircase leading upstairs only. Rising as slowly as possible from the reception desk, she jumped over the counter and crouched onto the floor. She made no noise. 

Nicole creepily crept over to the staircase, careful as to not step on anything that could make any sort of noise. When she made it to the door, she spotted a vending machine leaning against it blocking her from being able to open the door. With a deep breath she pushed as hard as she could against the wooden door and slowly the vending machine seemed to move. 

A Walker had spotted her. It screamed and ran towards her, grabbing her arm and pulling it towards its rotted mouth. Before it could get close enough to graze the skin, Nicole had gotten through the door and slammed the machine down on the Walkers head and the door. 

"Oh fuck." The redhead gasped out, clutching her sides and wincing. Light shown down the staircase and she knew she had found the safe zone. 

What ran though her mind, however, was the fact that Willa had tried to have her killed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry I've not updated this in like two months. Hopefully back on track. I've written like 3 different versions of this chapter and I was like the Grinch trying on clothes. I hated every one of them. But I quite like this. Plus Willa trying to kill Nicole is canon, so...


	15. I love you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All is not what it seems. Sometimes our loved ones lie to us, but does it mean they love us any less?

Nicole was rarely scared. She was usually too busy saving someone's ass to actually take the time to think about the consequences of her actions. With Waverly still locked somewhere upstairs and Xavier (hopefully) still being kept alive by Willa and her minions, Nicole was too terrified to confront Willa in the off chance she'll have them killed. 

Instead, she decided to creep around as silently as possible as to not create any unwanted attention. It was difficult considering there were Fireflies everywhere and they were all heavily armed. Nicole knew that there must be a bullseye imprinted on her back. 

In room 204 a few Fireflies were having a heated discussion before one of the heavyset men smashed his way through the door in a rage, a smaller petite man following him. A woman was left alone in the room, mumbling and cursing the guy who had just left. 

"Asshole." She repeated over and over. 

An idea came to Nicole and before she knew it she found the woman's head caught in a choke hold under her very own arms. As the light left the woman's eyes, Nicole quickly stripped the woman and stuffed her unconscious body into a nearby closet, gagging her and tying her up. Throwing the woman's clothes on, Nicole cautiously moved from room to room with the hopes of finding Xavier or Waverly. Hell, she'd be reassured just finding Wynonna safe. 

"Wait, Earp!" A shout came from behind Nicole. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. 

"No, Jake," Willa snapped, "I wanted her gone and now she is," Nicole turned, holding her hand against her face and watched the exchange unfold, "Now, kill him." 

The guy, Jake, looked distraught, "Willa, please, that's the father of your sisters child, you can't in all good conscious kill him."

"And she was my sisters fuck toy, but that didn't stop me from getting her ripped to shreds by infected." 

The AK-47 in her hands seemed so inviting to her. Just one pull of the trigger and Willa was gone, her current problems were gone. Temptation was a bitch, but Nicole was always quite good at avoiding it. Her mind cooled her temper down and instead of shooting everyone and then getting gunned down herself, she pushed through the rest of the hospital. 

Every hallway she cautiously checked seemed to have more and more Fireflies than the last. Her plans on just killing everyone seemed to shrink as she ploughed along. 

"I want to see my sister." Waverly's voice floated through the air. The sound of it was so welcomed by Nicole, but because of the circumstances she found herself in, she couldn't fully appreciate it. 

"Miss Earp, please just settle down." A rough mans voice replied to her. 

"NO!" Waverly screamed, "I want to see her, where's Wynonna!? Where's Nicole?! I need to see at least one of them!"

As soon as she heard Waverly say her name, Nicole burst into the room, hitting the man with her gun and knocking him out. Waverly squealed slightly at the commotion, but threw herself at Nicole once their eyes locked. 

"Nicole, where have you been?" Waverly slapped the redheads arm softly before pulling her back in for a bone crushing hug. 

Nicole pulled herself from her girlfriends embrace and clasped the smaller girls arms with her hands. She lowered her head so they were eye level before replying, "Listen to me, Waves, they've tried to kill me and they're going to kill Xavier, I need to find him and get him out of here." 

"They said he was already dead." Waverly shook her head, "They said he died on site."

"He's still alive somewhere, I over heard Willa talking about killing him," Nicole forced herself to stop, the words seemed foreign in her mouth, as though they weren't hers. She had played with the possibility of Xavier being dead, but the fact that she never had confirmation always made her carry on. She cleared her throat, "Waverly, she's planning on killing you, me and Xavier, Wynonna could be dead for all I know and Willa could be behind it."

Waverly shook her head, "But why would she? I understand about me, but why would she kill Wynonna? It doesn't seem practical."

"Think about it, the only two people opposed to you dying on the off chance that it saves the world are Wynonna and I, so what are the odds of her wanting us out of the picture?" 

The younger girl took a step back and wrenched her arms from the taller girls grip, "Nicole, she's my sister, she's Wynonna's sister, she won't hurt us unless its the last resort." 

"Waverly, plea-" 

"Prep Waverly for surgery." Willa's voice boomed down the hallway.

Nicole began to feel desperate, "Waverly, they're going to kill you. There is literally no proof that this immunity will be the cure to everything, this has been going on for two decades. You'd think that they would have found a cure for this, but they haven't! You're not the first person that they've tried this on! They found the immunity in nearly a dozen other people and it's done fuck all! They're hoping that 'this time it'll be okay'! Those people are dead and you're next so it's your choice, stay here and die or help me break Wynonna and Xavier out?"

__

Wynonna awoke to the sound of gun fire and screams. She lifted her head up from the soft yet smelly pillow to survey the room. Her head was pounding and she couldn't feel the bottom half of her body. A wave of panic washed over her as she frantically looked for her new born which was luckily tucked up in a cot next to her bed. 

Pulling herself into a sitting position was one of the hardest things she's ever put her body through, not including child birth. She groaned loudly as every nerve in her body stung badly. The shock of the door all but exploding off its hinges made Wynonna tap into some sort of supernatural powers. One second she can barely sit up, the next she leaps off the hospital bed and throws herself in front of her baby. 

"Wynonna, are you okay?" Waverly sprinted over to her sister and jumped on to her.

Wynonna yelped in pain, but only hugged Waverly tighter. 

"Xavier." Nicole gasped from the front of the doorway. She dropped her weapon and ran over to the bed opposite Wynonna's. Xavier was unconscious but still alive and it was all Nicole needed to see before kissing his forehead and running back to the door and gunning down as many Fireflies as she could. 

"Wynonna, look at me," Waverly pleaded but Wynonna's attention was focused purely on the unmoving form of Xavier Dolls, "WYNONNA!" Waverly screamed, snapping Wynonna's thoughts back to reality, "We have to go, can you walk?"

Wynonna nodded but as soon as her feet started to move, she collapsed. Waverly groaned. Grabbing onto Wynonna's arm, she pulled her sister towards Xavier's bed, unplugging all the devices currently plugged into him, "Waverly he has to stay on the life support."

"He'll be fine, trust me." Waverly's eyes pleaded with her sister who nodded and pointed towards her baby.

"Grab her, Waves." 

With the baby safely in Wynonna's arms, Waverly began to push the hospital bed containing Xavier and Wynonna out of the room. It was heavy but Waverly could handle it, easily. 

"Wynonna, can you shoot?" Nicole asked as she shot towards a group of Fireflies blocking an exit.

"Kinda busy trying to make my baby safe, dude." Wynonna cuddled her baby closer and shot a glare at the redhead. 

Nicole rolled her eyes, "Okay, I can't keep them off us on my own though-" a bullet struck Nicole's upper arm causing her to lose balance and crash to the floor. A few shots towards Wynonna and the baby caused Waverly to pick up the nearest available weapon, a .45, and let loose on those trying to kill them. 

Not a single bullet missed its target. Nicole was both slightly terrified of her small girlfriend and a tiny bit turned on. Ripping the sleeve from the clothes she stole from the Firefly guard, Nicole made herself a makeshift bandage to stem the bleeding. 

They made their way into an elevator, Nicole punched the Basement button just as more gunfire rained upon them. But they were gone. They were okay. Wynonna and her baby were alive, Xavier was still breathing and Nicole and Waverly were reunited. 

The elevator doors pinged open when they reached the lowest floor and found themselves in the parking lot. They split up, Wynonna, Xavier and Waverly on one side and Nicole on the other, to find a working car without rotted tyres. A crack to Nicole's right made her raise her gun and prepared her for more bloodshed. 

"You are one selfish bitch, Haught." Willa erupted from the shadows holding her bleeding side. 

"I can't let her die," Nicole whispered, "I won't let her die," she said with more confidence, "you can't stop the infection."

Willa cackled, "We could have. We had a plan, a full proof plan, but you had to take away Waverly's one chance at becoming the hero of this story. This was her decision and you took it away from her."

Nicole raised her gun higher, "Willa, leave now before I make you leave."

"You think I won't come after her?" Willa laughed, "I'll find her one day, I'll tell her that you wouldn't let her save humanity because you fell in love with her." 

"I wish you wouldn't have said that."

A single bullet echoed through the basement as a body fell to the floor. 

__

Nicole took the wheel. The others snoozed in the background. The redhead replayed everything that had happened in the past few hours over and over again in her head. Willa won't come after them. Nicole was sure. 

Waverly was asleep in the passenger seat next to Nicole, with the others snuggled together in the back. She glanced at them, they looked so domestic. Even though Xavier was still completely drugged up, he still looked extremely happy. 

"Mmmm...." Waverly mumbled before stretching out and sleepily grinning up at Nicole, "Mornin'" 

Nicole smiled back and rubbed Waverly's knee before focusing back on the road. 

"Nicole, can we talk?" 

The redhead knew it was coming, she had prepared herself for this conversation. Sighing, Nicole stopped the car and turned to the woman she loved."

"Go ahead, Waves."

"I need to know something," Waverly took a huge breath, "What you said, in the hospital, was it true?"

"Waverly...."

"No, listen," Waverly shuddered slightly as tears filled her eyes, "I won't ask you again, just don't lie to me, please, what you said at the hospital, about there being others that had tried and failed, was it true?" 

"Yes." Nicole didn't even hesitate, "There were files upon files about others just like you. There is no cure, we just have to face the reality." She knew she was lying, but Waverly seemed to accept it. 

"Okay." Waverly nodded her head and settled back down in her chair.

"Waves."

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Its over! ...... or is it? Willa could still be alive. Waverly doesn't believe Nicole. And Dolls isn't 100% okay. 
> 
> But in all seriousness, this fic is 100% over. I hope you were okay with the ending considering it's taken me like 7 months. But ''twas a bad ass (kinda) ending.


End file.
